One of the most devastating aspects of the 2004 tsunami that hit the South Asian coast was the lack of an early warning system.waves unleashed by earthquake Traveling at 700 kilometers per hour, it did not reach the shores of India and Sri Lanka until four hours later. Tragedy was inevitable, but timely evacuation would have saved many lives. The main paradox is that although two-thirds of her earth is covered by water, most of the time seismologist Found on land. The reason is that installing such systems on the ocean floor several miles below the surface can be an expensive and complex undertaking. But the necessary infrastructure is already waiting to be used. Thousands of undersea communication cables that allow you to read this article anywhere on the planet. And like the fabled Newton’s apple, the discovery that it can detect earthquakes came about by accident.
Giuseppe Marra works as a metrologist at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington (UK). There he analyzes fiber optic connections between networks of European atomic clocks. These underground cables typically carry noise from their surroundings, such as vibrations from aboveground traffic. But while looking through the October 2016 data, Mara noticed an odd reading. When he looked up the date of the event, he realized it could be attributed to a magnitude of 5.9. earthquake During the month it shook the heart of Italy. This would prove to be his epiphany moment. fiber optic cable It may act as a seismometer thanks to the subtle changes in phase of the laser beam when subjected to external vibrations. However, for this system, earthquake detection To work, it must be tested in an area safe from human interference. That’s when I came up with the idea of a submarine cable. Mara and other scientists applied their ideas to test an undersea cable linking Malta and Sicily and were able to identify an earthquake of magnitude 3.4. He also found that while one cable could detect the phenomenon, he needed at least three cables to pinpoint the exact location of the event.
“Three undersea cables are enough to determine the exact location and magnitude of an undersea earthquake.”
Today, more than 1 million kilometers of submarine cables cover the planet’s major seas and oceans.The best part is getting that infrastructure working sense an earthquake Requires a relatively modest investment. It costs only €40,000 to mount a small cabinet of lasers and optics on each end of the cable. But there is more to the story.
New Seafloor Mapping System
There are many unknowns about most of the world’s ocean floors. It is an unknown continent that can reach depths of 11 km in places like the Mariana Trench. nevertheless, New technology Developed by Marra and his team, the technique maps the mantle and behavior of tectonic plates, potentially yielding valuable information such as how seismic waves change according to the density of rocks they pass through. I have.as a result 3D image Similar to a computed tomography (CT) scan. For now, though, the system needs to be fine-tuned before it goes beyond earthquake detection.
sauce: scientific journals
