Many miles from the west coast of the Americas, a submarine cable connects Los Angeles, California with Valparaiso, Chile. Lying from end to end, it’s like that equal to four-fifths of the diameter of the Earth. The cable is fiber optic; it is a lifeline for data transmitted between the two continents. But according to new research, cable could have a dual function: mitigating the disastrous impacts of earthquakes and tsunamis.
The results come from an interdisciplinary collaboration between geophysicists and network engineers who analyzed the perturbations in the polarization of light transmitted through cables. A patent has been filed in relation to that of the team paper on the subject, published Wednesday in the journal Science.
“There are scientific and social implications here,” said Zhongwen Zhan, the lead author of the new article already geophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, in a video call. “Most of our geophysical sensors for detecting earthquakes and studying the appearance of the Earth’s interior are on land, but many of the most important geological processes are taking place in the ocean. We are taking advantage of pre-existing cables in the ocean to get a relatively scalable way to detect earthquakes. We believe that in the future we will be able to use them for early warnings of earthquakes and tsunamis. “
In the relentless online world we live in, where movies shot a century ago can be streamed at the push of a button and you can talk face to face with someone on the other side of the planet, fiber optic cables have an important weight. informative load. Submarine cables like Google’s “Curie” cable constantly transmit large amounts of data at breakneck speeds to keep the world connected.
The inevitable imperfections of the cables mean that the polarization of the light varies as the data passes through them in any direction. Other disturbances, such as temperature fluctuation and human activity, can further envelop the polarization of the cables. But in the deep sea, temperatures are relatively constant and there are rarely humans. This means that when a seismic wave undulates through the environment or a large ocean rise passes through it, it can be detected remarkably in the way it deforms the submarine cable.
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From seismological seabed research it is light and expensive, reading the fluctuations in the polarization of these high seas cables is a cheap and convenient alternative, according to the study authors. There are a lot of submarine cables to read this data. While the Curie cable measures approximately four-fifths of the diameter of the Earth, the total network of submarine cables could circumnavigate the planet 20 times. Amid half a century of other geophysical events the team recorded, cable Curie detected the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Oaxaca, Mexico, last June.
When the team first recognized a cable signal disturbance and was able to align it with an earthquake, “nothing was expected,” Zhan said. “No one had ever detected an earthquake looking at a telecommunications signal.”
During the team’s observations, they were able to recognize 20 earthquakes and 30 ocean waves. It is important to note that the team is not yet able to detect the epicenter of any seismic event (cables only detect the disturbance), but Zhan said that on the road, the epicenters of the earthquake could be triangulated by observing disturbed polarizations in through different cables.
“I think this will transform the way we look at the oceans as seismologists,” William Wilcock, a seismologist at the University of Washington who is not affiliated with the new document, said in a phone call. Wilcock recently wrote a Perspectives in Science article about Zhan’s team work. “In my area, there is a great deal of concern for the Cascadia offshore subduction zone, and much thought has been given to how to develop offshore infrastructure to improve our oversight. Doing so with dedicated systems means hundreds of “But being able to use commercial cables to do at least some of that is a big help in moving forward.”
It remains to be seen whether the method of listening to the Earth is adopted by the telecommunications industry to a large extent. What is certain is that this team has shown that we can hear the light through the by-product of your game Call of Duty or send family photos to spy on the seismic activity of the planet, perhaps better preparing for anything small or a lot, very big will come next.