The "unreasonable" usefulness of CTBTO data for disaster warning and science

A symposium on 17 February 2013 featuring eminent Earth scientists highlighted how data from the 337 worldwide facilities, which will make up the complete global warning system of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), can be used also for disaster warning and science. The event took place at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from 14 to 18 February 2013 in Boston, United States.
Following the meeting’s credo of the “unreasonable effectiveness of the scientific enterprise”, the CTBTO symposium is titled the “Unreasonable Usefulness of Test-Ban Verification for Disaster Warning and Science”. Participants at the conference are also welcome to visit the CTBTO’s booth (#901 in Hall C) to learn more about the organization’s work.

In the run up to the AAAS meeting, we are releasing some of the best sounds recorded by our hydroacoustic and infrasound stations - can you guess what they are? Come and take the quiz. A new sound will be released every second day, starting 31 January 2013: Sound Quiz #1  -  Answer for Sound Quiz #1 Sound Quiz #2  -  Answer for Sound Quiz #2 Sound Quiz #3  -  Answer for Sound Quiz #3 Sound Quiz #4  -  Answer for Sound Quiz #4 Sound Quiz #5  -  Answer for Sound Quiz #5 Sound Quiz #6  -  Answer for Sound Quiz #6

The symposium highlighted how CTBTO data could also be used to study climate change, volcanic eruptions, meteorites, storm systems, and even to monitor the movement of whales, as well as many other potential applications. It was moderated by Lassina Zerbo (image), who is currently the Director of the CTBTO’s International Data Centre and has been elected to take over the leadership of the organization on 1 August 2013 from Executive Secretary Tibor Tóth, whose term ends the day before.

Raymond Jeanloz, Professor of Earth and Planetary Science and Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley Jeanloz argued that advances in Earth sciences have significantly enhanced the sensitivity and reliability of nuclear explosion detection over the past two decades through the deployment of sensors around the globe. Scientific disciplines including seismology, hydroacoustics, infrasound and atmospheric transport modelling have contributed to the improved observation of nuclear explosions. Data from nuclear explosion monitoring have also been found to have broader societal applications, from tsunami warnings to global climate change studies. Earth sciences have thus served the policy community by offering enhanced means of detecting nuclear explosions, and the capabilities deployed for this purpose have – in turn – greatly contributed to this scientific field. View Jeanloz' presentation (PDF)

David Strangway, President and Founding Chancellor, Quest University, and former Chief, NASA’s Geophysics Branch. Strangway spoke about how landing a man on the moon in 1969 led to remarkable scientific breakthroughs in areas ranging from the origins of the solar system to how the Earth is changing. The innovation was a result of the interaction between the original demand to put a man on the moon and the supply of basic and applied science. Similarly, the demand by countries to set up a verification system to monitor the globe for clandestine nuclear explosions has played a significant role in helping scientists to understand the distribution of earthquakes and the changing boundaries of the tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust. This interaction of demand and supply-driven innovations has produced extraordinary scientific breakthroughs. View Strangway's presentatio (PDF)   

Miaki Ishii, Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University Ishii’s presentation explained how the CTBTO’s seismic component consists of 170 seismic stations around the globe to detect and locate underground nuclear explosions. However, the seismic data generated by the stations also show the Earth’s interior from just beneath our feet down to the centre of the planet, at almost 4,000 miles (nearly 6,500 km) below the surface. For example, CTBTO data help us understand the forces that drive plate tectonics and hence processes in the Earth’s crust where, for instance, earthquakes occur. Other data shed light on the Earth’s solid inner core and liquid outer core, the latter of which plays a role in generating the Earth’s magnetic field; this, in turn, shields us from harmful cosmic rays. View Ishii's presentation (PDF)