North Korea’s Mountain nuclear test site has collapsed putting the surrounding nations at risk of unprecedented radioactive exposure according to Chinese Scientists.
The South China Morning Post is claiming that the collapse could in part be why North Korea is suddenly willing to denuclearize and could also be why the nation has agreed to stop conducting missile tests.
A vast majority of the missile tests conducted by the hermit state originated from Mount Mantap at the Punggye-Ri nuclear test site. According to researchers familiar with the matter, the latest blast at the test site, tore open a hole in the mountain which subsequently collapsed on itself.
However, the blast created, what another group of researchers are calling, a ‘chimney’ of sorts which allows for radioactive fallout to spew out from the mountain.
North Korean leaders chose the mountain because it appeared to be the ideal location for an underground base, being that it is 6,888 feet above sea level and that it was surrounded by a terrain of thick, gentle slopes which were capable of resisting structural damage.
Researchers have detailed the seismic event which occurred roughly 8.5 minutes after North Korea tested on September 3rd, 2017;
Seismology illuminates physical processes occurring during underground explosions, not all yet fully understood. The thus-far strongest North Korean test of 3rd September 2017 was followed by a moderate seismic event (mL 4.1) after 8.5 minutes. Here we provide evidence that this aftershock was a non-tectonic event which radiated seismic waves as a buried horizontal closing crack. This vigorous crack closure, occurring shortly after the blast, is studied in the North-Korea test site for the first time. The event can be qualitatively explained as rapid destruction of an explosion-generated cracked rock chimney due to cavity collapse, although other compaction processes cannot be ruled out.
North Korea’s 2017 test and its… Research Gate