Blast Thought to Be Soviet Nuclear Test
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Associated Press
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — The Hagfors Observatory says it has monitored what it assumes was an underground nuclear explosion in the Semipalatinsk area of the Soviet Union.
The magnitude of the blast last week in central Asia was estimated at 5.3 on the Richter scale, the observatory said in a statement. The Richter scale is a measure of ground motion as recorded by seismographs.
The statement said the seismic signals recorded at the observatory corresponded to those that could be expected from a weak explosion in hard rock.
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