By Meghan S. Miller, John Townend and Voon Hui Lai, The Conversation Aotearoa New Zealand experiences frequent earthquakes, including destructive ones such as those that struck Christchurch in 2010 and 2011, and near Kaikōura in 2018. In the South Island, the…
Lighting up Internet cables to help better prepare for earthquakes
A first-of-its-kind experiment led by researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) could help make sure communities around the world are better prepared to deal with earthquakes. The experiment was conducted along the Alpine Fault in New Zealand – a geological…
10 Big Findings from the 2023 IPCC Report on Climate Change
March 20 marked the release of the final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), an eight-year long undertaking from the world’s most authoritative scientific body on climate change. Drawing on the findings of 234…
How Fiber Optic Cables Could Warn You Of An Earthquake
By firing lasers through underground fibers, scientists can detect seismic waves and perhaps improve alerts—giving people precious time to prepare. TURKEY AND SYRIA’S 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday is a brutal reminder that deep down, planet Earth still hides secrets. Scientists know…
Hearing the Light: DAS could Revolutionize Subsea Defense
During the summer of 2020, a group of Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) marine scientists based on the Svalbard archipelago successfully detected the vocalizations of baleen whales frolicking in Arctic Ocean and North Sea, some 70-90 kilometers away. At…
Underground Cables Are Taking the Planet’s Pulse
Geologists are using fiber optics to monitor earthquakes, volcanoes, and traffic noise. By Carolyn Wilke This article was originally published in Knowable Magazine. Andreas Fichtner strips a cable of its protective sheath, exposing a glass core thinner than a hair—a fragile,…
Sensing whales, storms, ships and earthquakes using an Arctic fibre optic cable
Martin Landrø, Léa Bouffaut, Hannah Joy Kriesell, John Robert Potter, Robin André Rørstadbotnen, Kittinat Taweesintananon, Ståle Emil Johansen, Jan Kristoffer Brenne, Aksel Haukanes, Olaf Schjelderup & Frode Storvik Abstract Our oceans are critical to the health of our planet and its…
