A GOOD SOLUTION FOR BIG CITIES

A GOOD SOLUTION FOR BIG CITIES
This approach appears to have great potential for use in large, earthquake-threatened cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Mexico City, where thousands of miles of optical cables are buried beneath the surface.

“What’s great about using fiber for this is that cities already have it as part of their infrastructure, so all we have to do is tap into it,” Beroza says.

Many of these urban centers are built atop soft sediments that amplify and extend earthquake shaking. The near-surface geology can vary considerably from neighborhood to neighborhood, highlighting the need for detailed, site-specific information.

Yet getting that kind of information can be a challenge with traditional techniques, which involve the deployment of large seismometer arrays—thousands of such instruments in the Los Angeles area, for example.
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“In urban areas, it is very difficult to find a place to install seismic stations because asphalt is everywhere,” Spica says. “In addition, many of these lands are private and not accessible, and you cannot always leave a seismic station standing alone because of the risk of theft.

“Fiber optics could someday mark the end of such large scale and expensive experiments. The cables are buried under the asphalt and crisscross the entire city, with none of the disadvantages of surface seismic stations.”