Natural disasters have a great impact on humans. According to an earth science study published by the British journal Nature Communications on the 3rd, fiber optic cables have been used to detect seismic signals for geological tomography. This suggests that future broadband communication networks may be used to locate and evaluate geological faults, fiber optic cables or as an alternative to seismographs.
Earthquake monitoring refers to the monitoring and measurement of earthquake precursor anomalies and seismic activities before and after an earthquake. Professional seismic stations and group measuring points, mainly water level meters, seismographs, electromagnetic wave measuring instruments and other monitoring instruments. In general, traditional seismic networks may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to operate and maintain, but this is critical for earthquake-prone areas. However, it has been proposed to use fiber optic cable for communication as a low-cost seismic monitoring method.
Philip Jusset, a scientist at the German Earth Science Center, and his colleagues set up an experiment in Iceland to transform fiber-optic cables into a series of sensors to record natural and artificial seismic waves. These sensors quantify the stress on the fiber optic cable by detecting subtle changes in the length of the fiber optic cable as it passes through the seismic wave. The research team found that fiber-optic cables not only recorded seismic signals, but also detailed analysis of surrounding faults and other deep geological structures.
Thousands of kilometers of communication cables have been laid around the world, so the materials are almost ready-made, so this method is considered to be cheap and sensitive. Although fiber-optic communication networks may be used to monitor earthquake disasters, the research team cautions that related technologies need to be further developed.
