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Google's submarine cable becomes a seismic sensor

2021-02-26T09:37:53.166Z


Google's 'Curie' submarine fiber optic cable, connecting California to Chile, becomes a seismic sensor and for tsunamis (ANSA)


Google's 'Curie' submarine fiber optic cable, which connects California to Chile, becomes a seismic sensor and for tsunamis. This is demonstrated by the study published in the journal Science by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and by the same company from Mountain View .

Among the authors the Italian Antonio Mecozzi, of the University of L'Aquila.

Opened in November 2019 and about 10,000 kilometers long, the Curie cable connects the Californian city of Los Angeles to the Chilean city of Valparaiso.

It is located between 4 and 6 kilometers deep, has a diameter of about 2 centimeters and contains 4 optical fibers with a diameter of a few tenths of a millimeter each.


Google's undersea cable structure diagram, 'Curie' (source: Google Cloud Platform)

Submarine fiber optic cables, the backbone of the Internet, are sensitive to changes in temperature and the pressure exerted by waves.

By monitoring the transmission of data, it is therefore possible to associate any thermal or pressure changes to an external event, due for example to seismic activity in the ocean floor or to surface waves.

"The technique is based on the fact that earthquakes and the pressure of sea waves both induce a difference in the path of light in the optical fiber of less than one ten thousandth of a millimeter - observes Mecozzi - and on the accurate measurement of this tiny difference at the end of the journey that light makes in the fiber ".

By adopting this strategy, which does not require the construction of new infrastructures or scientific equipment, in the course of a monitoring activity lasting nine months on the Curie cable, it was possible to record about thirty tsunamis and about twenty earthquakes, such as the one that struck the Mexico in June 2020. In perspective, the experts specify, the fiber optic network of the oceans in which much of the planet's data travels, can become a useful system for continuous and real-time monitoring and detection of marine earthquakes and tsunamis.

"The potential importance of this research is enormous", notes Mecozzi.

"Apart from the social fallout due to the possible organization of a tsunami warning system, from the point of view of a researcher it is exciting - he continues - to have access to data from the depths of the ocean. In fact, these are regions of the Earth that are still in largely unexplored, almost as much as the surface of Mars, and which could reveal a lot about the physics of our planet ”.

Source: ansa

All tech articles on 2021-02-26

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