A new press release highlights how existing subsea optical communication fibers can be used to detect seismic activity across continents, without disrupting data transmission.
Researchers from the University of L’Aquila, Sparkle, University of Padova, and Nokia Germany demonstrated that earthquakes in Kamchatka could be detected through fibers in the Mediterranean Sea, revealing the extraordinary sensitivity of fibre-optic sensing at a global scale.
The study also reports early indications of a resonance precursor up to 20 days before a seismic event, offering exciting possibilities for future early-warning systems.
This innovative approach, presented at ECOC 2025, aligns closely with ECSTATIC’s vision to transform the world’s communication infrastructure into a distributed sensing network for environmental monitoring and resilience.
