Internet cables crisscrossing the seafloor could be used to detect earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as monitor how climate change affects ocean currents.
According to the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and its partners, these telecom cables could be used as a massive array of deep-sea scientific sensors.
The technique was tested on an optical fiber link between the United Kingdom and Canada. The findings were published in Science Magazine.
According to the scientists, because installing permanent sensors to monitor the ocean floor is very expensive, only a few exist globally.
“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,” Dr. Giuseppe Marra of the NPL told the BBC.
It is estimated that there are over 430 around the world, spanning 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles)
According to Dr. Marra, vibrations, pressure, and temperature changes affect the speed of light as it travels through the cable by a very small amount, which extremely sensitive instruments can detect.
The earthquakes and “ocean signals,” such as waves and currents, were detected by the researchers using a 5,860km EXA Infrastructure optical-fibre link between Southport, Lancashire, and Halifax, Canada.
Individual spans of cable between repeaters – devices that help boost the signal – were used as separate sensors by the scientists.
“If we apply this technique to a large number of 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.
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