About Earthquakes | Rescent Earthquakes

Bomb detonation measurable?

On 25 March 2023, two unexploded ten-ton bombs were detonated in Göttingen

As in previous years, the ground vibrations from the bomb blasts were again recorded by the earthquake observatory located 3 km to the east. After only about 1 second, the first waves reached the historical Wiechert seismographs in the “Old Earthquake House” and the modern broadband seismometer in the “New Earthquake House”.

The figure shows a comparison of the registrations of the ground movements in east-west direction. The largest waves have an oscillation period of 0.3 seconds, with a maximum ground displacement of only 1…2 micrometres. The huge 17t pendulum, the construction of which began in 1904, can measure these ground vibrations on sooted paper almost as well as a state-of-the-art seismometer of today.