IU seismographs detected N. Korea’s nuclear blast

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — An Indiana University seismologist says equipment IU operates as part of a Midwestern earthquake-monitoring network detected this week’s nuclear test in North Korea.

IU operates seismographs in a network of about 70 such devices in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky that track the North America continent’s seismic activity.

Professor of geological sciences Michael Hamburger says some seismographs in that network detected the North Korean blast around 10:10 p.m. Monday, about 13 minutes after the nuclear device was detonated.

He says the IU experiment picked up a P-wave signal from the explosion at detectors in Missouri. That explosion was equivalent to a magnitude 5.1 earthquake.

Monday’s nuclear test in North Korea is the authoritarian communist nation’s third to date.