Tech giant Google has developed a new way to detect undersea earthquakes and tsunamis with the help of subsea fiber optic cables. While this system of detection already exists, the company claims that their technique works over tens of thousands of kilometres in comparison to the existing techniques that are effective over distances up to 100 km. The company also stated that the previous systems require special sensing fiber and special equipment while the technique used by the company to detect disturbances on the seafloor is based on the existing fiber.
It is known that fiber optic cables connect different continents along the seafloor and much of international traffic travels over these cables. These cables are used by Google to share, search, send, and receive information around the world at the speed of light.
How does this technique work?
The subsea fiber optic cables carry data as pulses of light travelling at a rate of 204,190 kilometres per second. The pulsing light encounters distortions as it travels thousands of kilometres across the cable. At the receiving end, the light pulses are detected, and the distortions are corrected by digital signal processing. With the help of SOP (State of Polarization), seismic activity is detected due to the mechanical disturbances along the cable.
What is meant by subsea fiber optic cables?
A subsea fiber optic cable is a submarine communications cable that is laid on the sea bed between the land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across oceans and sea.
How does Google see this technique?
As per the company, today's era is dependent on technology that is spread on today's fiber optic networks. For this purpose, hundreds of thousands of fibre optic network is stretched around the globe and is operated by the governments, telecommunication providers and companies like Google. Thus, a collaboration with the subsea cable community will help the world in detecting and researching the seismic activity around the globe.
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