North Korea’s detonation of a nuclear bomb apparently triggered several landslides, according to satellite images that are believed to show the test’s aftermath.
The underground blast at the mountainous Punggye-ri site on Sunday unleashed a powerful 6.3-magnitude tremor that was felt in China.
Analysis group 38 North published images that show “more numerous and widespread” disturbances than before, the BBC reported.
38 North said the pictures, which were taken Monday, showed landslides as well as numerous areas of gravel and stone fields that were “lofted” by the tremors.
Lofting occurs when shockwaves force material to be ejected from the ground, and the material falls back down in the same place.
The disturbances near Mount Mantap were “more numerous and widespread than what we have seen from any of the five tests North Korea previously conducted,” the site’s analysis said.
It added that while the test triggered a powerful tremor, it apparently did not cause the crater to collapse. But some experts believe the test did cause an underground tunnel at Punggye-ri to collapse.
Sunday’s bomb was thought to have had a power range from 50 to 120 kilotons.
A 50-kiloton device would be about three times the size of the US bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in Japan during World War II.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests so far, all at Punggye-ri, which consists of a system of tunnels dug underneath a mountainous region.