Earthquakes, using fiber optics to detect them works

Herrero already assured at the time that it would work (“On July 29th we detected the 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Alaska and shortly before that in Montenegro“), but lThe challenge was to validate the system comparing it with the data collected by a seismograph mounted for the occasion on site. In short, the aim was for complementarity of monitoring. Well, the goal was achieved and so was the peer review implemented by the specialists of Nature confirms it: the research was published at the beginning of April with the title Seismic monitoring using the telecom fiber network and co-signed by Open Fiber specialists, Ingv and the National Institute of Metrological Research (Inrim).

“We detected earthquakes of magnitude 7 that came from Alaska (July 2023) or Turkey (February 2023), but also smaller phenomena of magnitude 2.5 and 3 that could be hundreds of kilometers away. In recent years the hardware has not changed but we have refined the mathematical modeling applied to data analysis: the basis of future algorithms. The recognition by the scientific community of the seriousness and reliability of the method has confirmed the potential of this technique as a permanent and widespread monitoring tool “, underlines Carpentieri. For Davide Calonico, head of the Quantum Metrology Division at Inrim, “the results of this study and their publication in a prestigious journal demonstrate how it is possible, also thanks to synergies between different communities, to achieve objectives with an impact not only for science but also for society“.

A large national network

The next step is not yet defined but there are already discussions with potential partners and institutions. The only certainty is that a telecommunications architecture, commercial like the others 74 thousand kilometers of Open Fiber fiber distributed throughout the country and dedicated to ftth connectivity services (fiber to the home, fibta up to home), can be used at “zero cost” for other activities. And this solution could be one valid alternative to the positioning of more expensive traditional sensors. “What makes this technology so promising are two key elements: its complementarity with current equipment and its sustainability thanks to the reuse of existing infrastructure“, concludes Herrero.