Satelite maps North Korean nuclear blast aftermath

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The ground convulsion resulting from North Korea’s underground nuclear bomb test in January has been mapped by Europe’s Sentinel-1a radar satellite.

The EU spacecraft uses a technique called interferometry to sense surface movements.

Its data shows rock above the blast zone going down by up to 7cm in one area and rising 2-3cm in another.

The imagery was released by Germany’s Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR).

It advises the federal government on matters related to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The 6 January event was described by North Korean media as a miniaturised hydrogen bomb detonation, but there has been no independent confirmation of this claim.

All of North Korea’s tests (2006, 2009, 2013, 2016) appear to have occurred at a site called Punggye-ri, also known as P’unggye-yok, in a remote region in the east of the country, near the town of Kilju.

The data picked up by international seismometers has given very good location information, but the new Sentinel imagery refines these estimates further.

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