An effort to develop cooperative seismic monitoring of the Indian Ocean to prevent a repeat of last year's Tsunami is being held up by Indian concerns that the data could reveal too much about their nuclear weapons testing program.
The U.S. Senate has increased funding for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) which will boost the existing international network of nuclear monitoring devices (IMS).
Experts say that the recent disclosure that a large explosion in North Korea was not a nuclear test shows that the world's system for detecting clandestine nuclear tests is working, but it could be improved if more countries signed a treaty that proposes outlawing all such weapons testing.
Thousands of instruments emplaced around the world to detect earthquakes and monitor once-secret Soviet nuclear tests are finding new uses for scientists in a field they call "forensic seismology." So sensitive are the devices that they can even measure the precise timing of waves pounding against a shoreline after a storm, and record the impact of plane crashes, falling buildings or explosions.
Free data from a global array of microphones could spot nuclear false alarms, averting disastrous retaliation, say scientists and defence experts. The ground-based network will detect the faint, low-frequency rumbles of meteor explosions high in the atmosphere that can look like nuclear explosions to other sensors.