Majosta Multiple Studies of Underwater Explosions vis-à-vis the ROKS Cheonan Sinking: ROKS Cheonan Sinking and Underwater Explosions

PROLOGUE The aim of this book is to analyze and verify the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan. The ROKS Cheonan sinking took place off Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea west of the Korean Peninsula on March 26, 2010. 46 sailors out of a crew of 104 died as a result of the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan. There has been a lot of speculation regarding the cause of the sinking. This book attempts to verify the cause of this incident using gas bubble pulse, reverberation effects and the first motion of P-wave arrival on the vertical component as well as backazimuth estimate measuring amplitudes of the first P-wave arrivals on 3-component amplitudes including finding a bubble pulse and a bubble jet on the high resolution spectra. This data was further confronted with the information from the Kursk submarine disaster and the ARA San Juan submarine explosions. Contrary to various uncertainties on the ROKS Cheonan sinking, on scientific evidence I confirm that the ROKS Cheonan Sinking was due to an underwater explosion by one of the abandoned land control mines (LCM) which were deployed near the Baengnyeong Island and NNL (Northern Limited Lines) in the Yellow Sea of the Korean Peninsula in the late 1970s. I would like to express my appreciation to my international colleagues and collaborators: Prof. Dr.Yefim Gitterman (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel), Prof. Dr. Orlando C. Rodriguez (University of Algarve, Portugal), Prof. Dr. Robert B. Herrmann (Saint Louis University, USA), Prof. Dr. Anne Trehu (Oregon State University, USA), Prof. Dr. Khoo Boo Cheong (National University of Singapore, Singapore), Dr. Olivier Hyvernaud (Laboratoire de Géophysique, Tahiti, French Polynesia) and Prof. Dr. Aman Zhang (Harbin Engineering University, China). Author also appreciates CTBTO (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Vienna, Austria) funding to participate in SnT2015, SnT2017 and SnT2019 as well as collaboration in providing IDC data for this work. I acknowledge the copyright permissions for some articles from various publishers and organizations such as Springer-Nature, Elsevier, Geophysical Journal International, American Geophysical Union (AGU), California Institute of Technology Library etc., including free open access articles and proceedings to build this edited book. So Gu Kim August 2021