A wide network of submarine cables could be used to detect earthquakes and tsunamis or monitor how climate change alters ocean currents.
These telecoms cables could be used as a giant array of deep-sea scientific sensors, the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and its partners say. Dr Giuseppe Marra of the NPL told the BBC that "70% of the Earth's surface is water but all the seismic stations are on land, because it is too difficult and expensive to install permanent sensors on the seafloor".
A research paper published in Science Magazine examined this possibility at an existing subsea cable that links UK and Canada. The researchers said they had detected earthquakes and "ocean signals", such as waves and currents, using a 5,860km EXA Infrastructure optical fiber link between Southport, Lancashire, and Halifax, Canada.
To monitor seismic activity, the team were able to use amplifiers and repeaters that are already installed on most cables, to help boost the signal as separate sensors. They are located along the entire length at a distance of 45-90 km from each other and divide the cable into short segments. It is on these segments that the team relies in its research.
"If we apply this technique to numerous cables", Dr Mara said, "we could transform this underwater infrastructure into a giant array of detectors for earthquakes, ocean currents and more. "Extending the seismic network from land to the seafloor will improve our understanding of the internal structure of the Earth and its dynamic behavior" he added.
Cable-based sensors could identify the "epicentral area" of an earthquake in the same way as land-based seismometers, the researchers suggest while the technique is prominent other functions such as monitor how global warming affects deep-water currents or how climate change alters sea-floor temperatures.
Technology-giant Google was involved in the research as well as the University of Edinburgh, the British Geological Survey, and the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, in Italy.
Brian Baptie, head of the Earth seismology team for the British Geological Survey, said the research could transform scientists' ability to make measurements over vast areas of Earth's surface where it was very difficult to use conventional technologies. "It creates an amazing opportunity to observe earthquakes in the middle of oceans at close range as well as the tantalizing possibility of measuring other natural phenomena like submarine volcanic eruptions and tsunami in future," he said.
Sources: www.bbc.com, www.mezha.media.com
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