00:00nuclear tests are often carried out underground there are many reasons for that not the least of
00:08which is to prevent accidental spread of radioactive material however they also do it
00:13because the country testing them likely wants to remain secretive about their capabilities
00:17but that might not be possible for long experts have now figured out a way to track underground
00:22tests and differentiate a nuclear bomb going off underground from other common and equally
00:27powerful geological events namely earthquakes researchers from the australian national
00:32university and the los alamos national laboratory in the u.s. have developed what they call a
00:37statistical model it lets them look at data that indicates geological displacement providing
00:42another metric for figuring out whether a bomb went off or whether the earth's crust made movement on
00:47its own and they say their new method can differentiate the two with 99 accuracy previous measures have
00:53looked at seismic source location for example determining whether the source of a large
00:57possible bomb related tremor was close to a fault line they are also able to tell at what depth
01:01seismic activity was created meaning if the seismic movement occurred at a depth greater than a mile
01:06and a half it's more likely natural still these are only guesses but their new method which is still
01:11under wraps is nearly 100 percent accurate
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