Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/32758

JaLCDOI : 10.14943/gbhu.71.39

Seismic waves generated by a nuclear test carried out by North Korea on October 9, 2006 were observed throughout the Japanese islands. Clear arrivals of Pn waves, which traveled below the Moho discontinuity underneath the Japan Sea, were recorded by the Japanese broad-band seismic network, F-net, deployed by National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED). We analyzed the waveforms of the nuclear event observed at F-net stations as well as some global seismic stations in East Asia. Apparent path-average velocity of Pn waves and their maximum amplitudes are estimated from vertical component seismograms of the F-net stations. We found conspicuous regional variations of apparent path-average velocity and maximum amplitude. For example, fast apparent velocity and larger amplitude are observed in the paths across the Japan basin in the northern Japan Sea, whereas slow velocity as well as relatively smaller amplitudes are found in the path to stations in Kyushu. Such regional variability of Pn waves is likely to make it difficult to estimate source parameters for this small-scale explosive event in the Korean Peninsula, only using the Japanese seismic network. These results suggest the necessity of a precise three-dimensional seismic model of the Japan Sea to utilize Japanese seismic network data for analysis of regional seismic waves that propagate along a variety of paths in the Japan Sea.