A seismic event on August 20, 1983: double explosion or a single earthquake

An interesting weak seismic event occurred on August 20, 1983 in the Caspian Sea region in southwestern U.S.S.R., which produced at Gauribidanur array two distinct seismic signals, viz. the leading P signal and a similar signal after an interval of nearly 12 s. Preliminary data corresponding to these two signals led to an initial assumption that the event was a double underground nuclear explosion. However, the focal depth of this event from P arrival-time data of 21 stations was found to be 45 km. Further processing of the Gauribidanur array seismograms confirmed that the second signal, detected exactly 11.85 s after the first arrival, was none other than the surface-reflected P pulse which lent excellent support to the source depth estimate. By using three discriminants, viz. signal complexity, third moment of frequency and relative efficiency of generation of core-reflected P, the event was objectively compared with 10 small presumed underground nuclear explosions in southwestern U.S.S.R. to conclude that the August 20, 1983 event was a shallow-focus small earthquake in the Caspian Sea area.