The optical fiber cable monitors the subtle trend in Antarctica

Photo: Seismic fiber optic array in Antarctica view more

Credit: Michael Kendall / University of Oxford

At the 2021 American Seismological Society annual meeting, researchers shared how they are using fiber optic cable to detect small earthquakes occurring in the ice in Antarctica.

Anna Stork, geophysicist at Silixa Ltd. The results can be used to better understand the movement and deformation of ice under changing climatic conditions, as well as improve future monitoring of CCS projects.

Stork discussed how she and her colleagues are working to improve distributed acoustic sensing methods, or DAS, for small earthquakes – earthquakes that are too small to be felt. DAS works by using small internal defects within the optical fibers such as thousands of seismic sensors. An instrument at one end sends laser pulses down the cable and measures the “resonance” of each pulse as it is reflected from the internal faults of the fibers.

When the fibers are disturbed by earthquakes or glacial earthquakes, there are changes in the size, frequency and phase of the laser light propagated back into the DAS receiver which can be used to characterize the seismic event.

Michael Kendall of the University of Oxford said Antarctic research shows how DAS can be used to monitor underground carbon capture and storage at other locations in the world. For example, the Antarctic grid mapping provides a good example of how a similar network can be formed to discover the exact tendency that can be triggered by carbon storage.

“Our work also demonstrates a way to use DAS fiber arrays to investigate minute earthquake source mechanisms in more detail than conventional geophones,” said Tom Hudson of the University of Oxford. “If we could analyze the source mechanism – how an earthquake fails or breaks – we might be able to attribute the earthquake to the movement of liquids like carbon dioxide in the reservoir.”

Hudson explained that the minute Antarctic earthquakes recorded by DAS “are about -1 degree, which corresponds to roughly the size of a book falling off a table,” “so they are very small earthquakes.”

The study by Hudson and colleagues is the first to use DAS to look at ice earthquakes in Antarctica. The optical fiber cable was deployed in a linear and triangular configuration on the ice surface of the Rutford Ice Stream.

Kendall said there are a number of challenges to using fiber-optic sensors in an harsh Antarctic environment. The equipment had to be transported in pieces by boat and several planes to the study site. The researchers had to bury the fibers to reduce wind noise polluting the seismic signal, as well as remove the signal of the generator operating the DAS instrument.

“We put the instrument in a mountaineering tent, which was mainly used as a small office,” Stork explained. “Keeping temperatures within recommended operating limits was a challenge. Radiant heating from the sun warned the tent to be fine in the 1930s. [degrees Celsius]Even though it was -10 ° C outside. ”

Kendall said researchers are sharing their analyzes of glacial earthquake data with climate scientists and other researchers studying glacier sliding and other ice movements in Antarctica.

He pointed out that, “We hope in the future to interact more with scientists who dig the core of the ice as well, as they use the fibers as distributed temperature sensors, but these fibers that they put in the wells can also be used in seismic studies such as our studies.”

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