North Korea's 2017 nuclear tests triggered 1,400+ earthquakes over years
Study finds five underground explosions at Punggye-ri activated dormant fault lines, with seismic activity continuing years after testing stopped.
What to know
- North Korea's 2013-2017 nuclear tests at Punggye-ri triggered nearly 1,400 small earthquakes, with seismic activity continuing years after the last explosion.
- The tests reactivated dormant fault lines and altered regional geology, including pathways toward a major volcano 100 km away at the China border, according to a joint Chinese-South Korean study published in Science.
- Most recorded earthquakes were below magnitude 2.0—too small to be felt—sparking debate on Hacker News about whether distributed tiny quakes are preferable to a single major event.
The dispute Whether small induced earthquakes represent a material geological hazard or are negligible compared to the natural stress relief they may provide, and whether the focus on North Korea reflects genuine concern or political bias given similar earthquake-inducing activities in Western countries. · positions read across 19 posts and comments
Many small quakes are better than one large earthquake; the energy would be released anyway.
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“The energy being released in these many tiny earthquakes was always going to exist in this location. Much better to release it slowly via thousands of tiny earthquakes than all at once.”
margalabargala · Hacker News ↗
These earthquakes are too small to matter; the article sensationalizes magnitude-2 events.
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“This article does a very poor job of differentiating earthquakes people feel and care about versus magnitude 2 quakes that are like your neighbor dropping a book upstairs.”
elictronic · Hacker News ↗
Nuclear tests damaging fault lines creates real geological risk that could trigger larger events.
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“If you have an anvil hanging over your head, the potential energy that would kill you already exists. Damaging the rope holding the anvil doesn't.”
jjk166 · Hacker News ↗
Coverage selectively focuses on North Korean tests while ignoring similar earthquake-inducing activities by Western countries.
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“There's a lot of people in this thread who see "North Korea" and "nuclear test" and get fired up but would otherwise shrug if it were instead, say, "Oklahoma" and "fracking".”
BigTTYGothGF · Hacker News ↗
North Korea Conductor of nuclear testsChinese and South Korean researchers Study authors
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Science study gains wider attention on Hacker News
The AAAS Science article reporting on the study reaches 142 points and 115 comments on Hacker News, sparking discussion about the magnitude of earthquakes, geological risk, and comparisons to induced seismicity from other human activities.
“North Korea's underground nuclear tests have triggered a chain of seismic events, activating ancient fault lines that stretch towards one of the most dangerous volcanoes on Earth, about 100km (62 miles) away…”
— SCMP/Science study reporting · source -
This threw me into a rabbit hole for a bit. Apparently there is good evidence that a lot of historical earthquakes in california were due in part at least to the oil industry, which early on would not replace pumped out oil with water.Now a days they claim they replace the oil with water and all is well. However, as anyone who has owned an ancient…
2 more of the top 3 · 19 posts in this stretch
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Interesting. The nuke tests have stopped... but the earthquakes haven't - https://www. science.org/content/article/no rth-korean-nuclear-test-sets-years-earthquakes - Via Science.Org
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There's a lot of people in this thread who see "North Korea" and "nuclear test" and get fired up but would otherwise shrug if it were instead, say, "Oklahoma" and "fracking".The supplemental information is available and says: > Our earthquake catalog consists primarily of small events with magnitudes of < 2.0 and there were 1399 of them.The cited…
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Study documents 1,400 earthquakes linked to nuclear tests
A joint Chinese and South Korean study published in Science documents nearly 1,400 earthquakes triggered by the five nuclear explosions, with most events measuring below magnitude 2.0. The study finds that the explosions fundamentally altered the region's geology and activated ancient fault lines stretching toward a dangerous volcano approximately 100 kilometers away at the China border.
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first by HN Best, 5d ago · also HN Frontpage, WION, India Today, NDTV
5 more headlines
- North Korean nuclear test sets off years of earthquakes – Science – AAAS HN Frontpage · 5d ago
- North Korea's nuclear tests triggered 1,399 earthquakes: Earth is still shaking | Gravitas WION · 5d ago
- Nuclear tests in North Korea triggered 1,399 quakes, affected Earth's crust India Today · 5d ago
- North Korea's Nuclear Tests May Have Triggered 1,399 Earthquakes, Study Finds NDTV · 5d ago
- North Korea's nuclear testing may have triggered hundreds of earthquakes over several years Phys.org · 5d ago
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first by SCMP, 5d ago · also SCMP China
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Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by Scientific American, 6d ago · also Gizmodo, Yahoo
3 more headlines
- North Korea's Punggye-ri Tests Cause Years of Increased Earthquakes 조선일보 · 6d ago
- North Korea’s Underground Nuclear Tests Are Reactivating Dormant Earthquake Fault Lines Gizmodo · 6d ago
- North Korea’s 2017 Nuclear Test Was Followed by Years of Rising Earthquake Activity | Ukraine news mezha.net · 6d ago
and 1 smaller piece
What people are saying 16 voices from 1 site · best of 19 · verbatim
- How do researchers distinguish earthquakes triggered by the tests from natural background seismicity, especially given the long delay?
- Could the distributed earthquakes actually relieve pressure that would otherwise accumulate into a catastrophic event?
- What is the actual risk to the nearby volcano, and how likely is a major eruption or earthquake as a result?
- Sep 19
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I always wondered where and how my country would test nukes if it developed them. Basically there is an expectation that you have to explode at least one.It was much easier in colonial times when everyone owned a desert or remote island
- Sep 18
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Is this safer overall? Should we give kids a day off from school and detonate a midsized nuclear device near Los Gatos?
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Fracking doesn't result in potential nuclear fallout or the likes of Seoul or Tokyo being held hostage.
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It's simple, really. Fracking has offsetting pro-social benefits in a way that NK possessing nuclear weapons does not.
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When gas extraction caused earthquakes in Groenignen, this site was very clear on prioritizing fossil fuel extraction over a few small tremors.
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Reminds me of a display at Chabot in the bay area. A bubbling volcano covered by a stable mass stays bubbling underneath, but shaking up the mass gives little bubbles a bath up and they break way for the big bubbles leading to a volcanic eruption. If you fragment a he soil at some point in the mantle of earth and there is pressure anywhere below…
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Curious how we never get articles about the harm caused by western countries nuclear tests...
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If you have an anvil hanging over your head, the potential energy that would kill you already exists. Slowly lowering the anvil makes sense. Damaging the rope holding the anvil doesn't.
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Geologic systems are more complex than this. Analyzing something like this as though it were a single system is wrought with the dangers of miscalculation.You could locally release stresses on an incremental, short term basis this way in a local system, while at the same time increasing stresses on nearby systems which could fail even more…
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The long delay is the interesting part to me. How do they distinguish earthquakes triggered by the test from normal background seismicity?
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Basically, they gave their land Atrial Fibrillation through strong extrasystoles.
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It's logarithmic so you'd need more like 30,000 magnitude 3 earthquakes to equal the energy of a magnitude 7. I don't think it's clear this is better. You can also make the argument that this may trigger the large earthquake that might not have happened for a long time.
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This article does a very poor job of differentiating earthquakes people feel and care about versus magnitude 2 quakes that are like your neighbor dropping a book upstairs.
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It can go either way, you might get a relief of pressure or you might get an increased destabilisation in the region.
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Could this be considered a good thing?The energy being released in these many tiny earthquakes was always going to exist in this location. Much better to release it slowly via thousands of tiny earthquakes than all at once. Better to have 10k magnitude 3 quakes than one magnitude 7.
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How long until someone attempts to diffuse a pent up fault line via nuclear geoengineering?