Scientists from the UK’s National Physical Laboratory have been testing the use of Internet Cables as an array of deep-sea scientific sensors. Using optical fibre cables which currently carry data across the seas and oceans these scientists theorised and successfully tested very slight pressure and temperature changes within the cables to help detect earthquakes, tsunamis and even how climate change is altering ocean currents.
Because the data inside the cables is travelling at the speed of light they require extremely sensitive instruments the detect these changes, however, applying these technique to a large number of the current 430 deep sea fibre cables could improve our understanding of the internal structure of the Earth and it’s behaviour as well as identifying the epicentre of underwater earthquakes the same way we can with land-based seismometers.
This research was helped by researchers at Google, the University of Edinburgh, the British Geological Survey and also the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, in Italy.
Utilising this research could transform scientists’ ability to measure vast areas of the Earth’s surface where, currently it is extremely difficult to using conventional technology as well as observing and recording underwater earthquakes, deep sea volcanic eruptions and tsunamis in the future.
"By utilising hardware which is already there, it almost seems obvious to apply them beyond their original usage and in turn help us learn more about the planet and the impact climate change has on the sea" Shivvy Jervis
