What does underground nuclear testing do to the seismic fault lines?

Question

The underground nuclear bomb explotions (like north korea) apparently creates a shockwave that is detected as an "artifical" earthquake. There are numerous seismic problems in Japan by natural geological processes. Is the nuclear explosion strong enough to trigger an unattended consequence (i.e. tip the balance for a major earthquake of natural causes)? There were a lot of these tests done in Nevada which is not far from California's San Andreas fault. Does that mean the forces involved are just not strong enough to significantly impact natural geological processes?

Answer 1

these explosions are way too small to make a difference. and the N.K. bomb was a very small bomb, just 500 tons when large bombs are measured in hundreds of kilotons or even megatons.

based on rough estimates, the largest and most deadly earthquakes have released easily more than 30 to 50 times the energy released by the largest nuclear bombs ever detonated (nearly 50megatons)

this being said, it could be that, if you had the science to predict earthquakes' timing and location of biggest move, and it you had the technology to dig deep, and if you had a 50megaton nuclear bomb, then you could probably influence, up to a point, where or when an earthquake might strike.

that's, however, not something current human science or technology can do today. and it seems unlikely that this will change over the next 50 years at least.

Answer 2

Underground nuclear testing most certainly can effect nearby faultlines. Nuclear concussion spreads out over a massive area. Japan is seismically active and North Korea is close to Japan. Are the North Koreans smart enough to realize that their nuclear testing could cause quakes in Japan's seismic zone? Do they care?

Answer 3

The russains had an earthquake machine att he end of ww II and sold it to the Americans. It causes earthquakes by shooting lightening bolts into the ground. This causes it what the heck do you need to ask what nukes would do.
Duh.
The earth is being destroyed and the lucky ones will get to die before the evil scientist finsish us all off.

Answer 4

time to tighten the economic and diplomatic screws on the north korean government-and its partners-embargo and isolate those who aid the north korean government! of course we've heard from the idiot left: 'they're not a threat'-tell that to our allies the south koreans and the japanese 'they only want nukes because they fear we will attack them'-we could have obliterated them at any point in the past 50 years-but chose not to 'they have the right to nukes just like anyone else'-do terrorist groups also have the right to nukes? north korea as been providing money and weapons to terrorist groups for years; given that they are led by a certifiable nutcase, what's to stop them from handing over nuke technology and/or materiel to al-queda, for instance? of course, one shouldn't expect north korea's behavior to bother the left in the slightest-they have been silent about the murderous and totalitarian regime in china since its inception, they were silent about the murderous soviet regime, they were silent when the cambodian communists were killing millions, they have been silent about the total absence of freedom in cuba; if they had a shred of intellectual honesty, they'd just admit that whatever a communist regime does is just 'okey-dokey' with them

Answer 5

if an area was unstable there is a strong likleyhood of tectonic activity after a nuclear test, hence most nuclear tests are done away from seiesmically active areas

Answer 6

causes earthquakes