The , for example, pegged the North Korean shock at 4.2 on the Richter scale. The USGS timed the quake at 8:35 p.
m. EDT Sunday, 10:35 a.m.
Monday local time. News reports said that the shock was also detected by institutes in Australia and South Korea, and pointed to a confirmation of the underground test announced Monday by the North Korean government. South Korea's monitoring service noted a 3.
6 scale tremor at the time. Seismic activity is used to estimate suspected atomic weapon's yield, or destructive power, but initial reports were mixed. Russian authorities said the test was equivalent to 5,000 to 15,000 tons of TNT (5-15 kilotons).
The bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in August 1945 had a yield of approximatley 15 kilotons. South Korea, however, guessed that the destructive power of its neighbor's test was much lower: 550 tons of TNT. Google Earth aficionados also used the Web to distribute the USGS-estimated location of the shock.
On a Google Earth message board, a user posted a (Google Earth software required).
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