Bang!

[compilerbitch]

North Korea appear to have detonated a nuclear device. The US Geological Survey say they didn't pick anything up, but the South Koreans reckon that they picked up a 3.9 tremor from a remote region of North Korea.

Probably not a very big one, and most likely a partial detonation (fizzle). But not particularly great news...

Edit: USGS confirmed 4.2 on the Richter scale, which puts the detonation (extrapolating from published data on US nuclear tests in Nevada) of the order of 10-15 kilotons, so it is just about possible that they are pulling a fast one and it wasn't nuclear at all, but it's also in the same range as the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs from WW II, so it's credible that it may have been a for-real, probably fairly unsophisticated, A-bomb.

Edit: MSNBC are saying 550 ton equivalent, about a third of my estimate. That might be wishful thinking -- it doesnt sound like enough te generate a 4.2 tremor.

Comments

[cuthalion.livejournal.com]

Nuclear holocaust will solve all our problems!

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

Oh, bugger. Just what we ex-pats needed...

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Sigh. When the history books are written, this is one thing W. Bush is going to be remembered for. 'pears N. Korea's engineers must be seriously incompetent to get a fizzle, or perhaps they had sabotage. I'm glad.

btw, I looked for that my frame shop on Google; it's not there anymore. It may have been succeeded by "Frame Art Workshop & Gallery" or "Art & Frames Unlimited".

[neonchameleon.livejournal.com]

'pears N. Korea's engineers must be seriously incompetent to get a fizzle, or perhaps they had sabotage. I'm glad.

It's not that serious incompetence I believe when you are playing with Plutonium bombs rather than Uranium.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

*whimper*

It doesn't surprise me that they didn't succeed, but scary all the same...

[vectorious.livejournal.com]

550 ton equivalent is surely 1/30th of 15 kilotons - not 1/3rd. Which makes it very wishful thinking

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Yes, sorry, I was half asleep. I was working from a test in Nevada which was quoted at 5.5 on the Richter scale for a 150 megaton yield. So 4.5 would be 15 megatons, 3.5 would be 1.5 megatons, 2.5 would be 150 kilotons, 1.5 15 kilotons, etc. So, on that curve, 550 tons should not be noticeable. Of course, I am assuming here that yield equates to earthquake energy, but...

[neonchameleon.livejournal.com]

MSNBC are saying 550 ton equivalent, about a third of my estimate. That might be wishful thinking -- it doesnt sound like enough te generate a 4.2 tremor.

It's not - but it might have generated the 3.8/3.9 that was picked up early on.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

South Korea said 3.8/3.9, USGS said 4.2. Both sound rather big for a 550 ton yield. For that matter, where does the 50 come from? It's odd to see something with two significant digits when the original figures are inherently a bit unreliable. Either someone knows more than they are publicly saying, or the yield was much larger and someone is playing politics aimed at the home audience.

[otterylexa.livejournal.com]

550 tons? I'm not sure what the TNT-factor of modern high explosives is, but surely the easiest way to get a bang that big is some largeish (less than a hundred tons surely?) amount of conventional explosives. Cheaper too, and you can frighten your next door neighbours.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Indeed. There was a fair bit of speculation on the US news channels that this was exactly what happened.