Hi Roger,

Can you send me the data you used?

The effect being looked for was a reduction in the number of earthquakes in perhaps the 7.5 and higher magnitude range. But if during the time period when underground tests were being run there were just as many high magnitude earthquake then that would indicate that the test shockwaves were probably not having any effects on the fault zones where the high magnitude earthquakes were going to occur.

Something that has been proposed in the past is that if that effect were real then governments around the world might want to set off an occasional underground test in order to make certain that no fault zones ever stored up enough energy to produce an 8.5 magnitude earthquake. But, if the original theory that this relies on is not correct then there is no sense in anyone even thinking about it.

Also, I doubt if governments would be interested in doing that even if it could be shown that the high magnitude limiting effects of the tests were real.