Teleseismic Signals Calculated for Underground, Underwater, and Atmospheric Explosions

The purpose of this paper is to provide estimates of the teleseismic signals from explosions in a representative range of environments. The problem is resolved into four component parts: the source function of the explosion, the elastic effects (including geometric spreading), nonelastic effects, and the influence of the recording system. Source functions appropriate to atmospheric explosions, underwater explosions, and underground explosions in a variety of rock types are derived. The effects of elastic and nonelastic behavior are combined to define a standard propagation path. Using the response of a particular recording system, signals from explosions of several different yields in the various media are calculated. In particular, curves illustrating the variations of signal amplitude with yield are obtained; these show that the relative seismic efficiency of explosions in different media is strongly dependent on yield. The relevance of explosion seismology to earthquake seismology is that it enables the propagation path effects to be defined accurately.