The mountain of North Korea tried thermonuclear bombs to explode

Experts warn if the mountain is subjected to five of Korea's most recent bomb tests, radioactive dust will cover the region.

Chinese scientists identify the mountain where North Korea conducted the five most recent nuclear bomb tests , including the most powerful bomb that exploded on September 3, threatening to collapse, according to the South China Morning Post.

Through measuring and analyzing shock waves from explosions caused by earthquake monitoring stations in China and many neighboring countries, the research team at China University of Science and Technology in Hefei and Anhui, convinced all Korean bomb tests were carried out under the same mountain in the Punggye-ri test area.

Researchers at Earth and Seismic physics lab published a report on the school's website yesterday. Geophysicist Wen Lianxing, team leader, said that based on data collected by more than 100 earthquake monitoring stations in China, the largest error is 100m.

Leader Kim Jong-un checked fusion equipment.(Photo: KCNA).

According to Wang Naiyan, former president of the Chinese Nuclear Association and senior researcher in the country's nuclear weapons program, if Wen's findings are accurate, the risk of environmental disasters is huge.

Just one more test would be enough for the whole mountain to collapse into the cave wall, creating an opening that allowed radioactive dust to escape and float across the region, including China."We use the word" speedy ". If the mountain collapses and the gap appears, many bad things will spill out , " Wang said.

The explosion on September 3 brought an 8-minute earthquake. Authorities at the Chinese seismic agency said it was a subsidence triggered by the explosion.

Not all mountains are suitable for testing nuclear bombs. According to Wang, the top of the mountain must be high, but the mountainside must be relatively comfortable. Considering Korea's limited land area and the sensitivity of the nuclear program, there may not be many suitable mountains to choose from.

The time of the mountain remains steadfast depending on where the North placed the bomb . "If the bombs are located at the bottom of the steep tunnel, the explosion will cause less damage , " Wang said.

However, the steep, hard-to-dig tunnels are both expensive and difficult to place cables and sensors to collect data from the explosion. A much easier way is to dig a horizontal tunnel into the center of the mountain, but the risk of blown mountains is also increased.

The increasing size of Korean nuclear bombs also contributed to boosting the risk."A 100-ton bomb is a relatively large bomb. The Korean government should stop testing bombs because tests not only threaten the people of this country but also other countries, especially China," Wang said. .

Wang did not rule out the possibility that Wen and colleagues' calculations might be wrong. Earthquake waves move at different speeds through different rocks, so accurate prediction based on seismic data is not easy.

Wen's team estimated that the energy released from the latest test was about 108.3 tons of TNT, or 7.8 times the US atomic bomb dropped on Japan's Hiroshima city in 1945. A group of scientists Another study in Norway calculated the energy released from the explosion in Punggye-ri was 10 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.