STANFORD SCIENTISTS TURN FIBRE OPTIC NETWORK INTO A MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE SENSOR

Scientists from Stanford University have devised a way to make use of fibre optic networks as earthquake sensors. While fibre optical cables have been used to transmit high-speed data reliably for years now, this is the first time that a network has been put to use as a sensor in this manner.

Professor Biondo Biondi, a geophysicist, has been developing this system for over a year now, reported Spectrum. A 4.8km testing loop was setup at the university to record disturbances and vibrations from the Earth. The trick was to separate the vibrations coming from other sources, like traffic and ambient disturbances.

Since the time it was setup in September 2016, the report pointed out that the team was able to record 800 events. This included the massive quake that hit Mexico on 19 September this year, killing over 220, as well as rumbles caused by explosions in quarries in California. Eileen Martin, a graduate student working on the project, said, "People didn't believe this would work. They always assumed that an uncoupled optical fibre would generate too much signal noise to be useful."