Guadeloupe, scientists are gaining access to local underwater cable networks. Their goal is to observe major shifts in temperature of the seafloor water. Active acoustic ROV/ AUV imaging This new technique can make the otherwise-barren ocean floor a key asset. It will allow us to better model emerging environmental changes and ultimately save lives. Marc-André Gutscher is the head of the initiative, which is a pilot study within a larger research effort sponsored by the European Union. FOCUS, as this new, seven-year project is known, is scheduled to run through September 2025.
The multi-year project is designed to discover how the world’s existing underwater telecommunications cable networks can supplement growing international environmental monitoring initiatives. More than 1.48 million kilometers of underwater fiber-optic cables circle the globe, carrying about 99 percent of the world’s internet and telephone traffic. The FOCUS team knows that this incredible infrastructure can help us prevent disasters and better understand the world around us.
Innovative Techniques in Monitoring
The research utilizes two complementary techniques to gather data: Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (BOTDR). These evolving technologies enable researchers to identify small deviations in temperature and other physical characteristics of the ocean environment.
One such installation, a 6-kilometer-long prototype cable, was laid across the seafloor along the North Alfeo Fault just off the coast of Catania, Sicily. This cable combines two different types of optical fiber—loosely buffered fibers and tightly buffered fibers—into one cable system. At only 9 millimeters thick, the cable is an essential link in the collection of detailed, real-time environmental data.
Our FOCUS implementation team just announced an implementation breakthrough that we’re really excited about! The textual Sicilian prototype cable reliably monitored a large temperature anomaly, measuring an increase of close to 1.5°C in shallow waters across two years. In deeper waters farther away from Guadeloupe, temperatures increased 0.2 to 1°C. This shift took place between the depths of 300 and 700 meters. This long-term observation is critical to understanding changes and trends in ocean temperatures and their tremendous impacts.
Remote Monitoring Capabilities
A main benefit of this technology is its ability to be monitored remotely. The development team made a permanent test installation that allows them to record data from the cables every three hours. This frequent data collection provides a continuous stream of information that can be invaluable for understanding environmental shifts and potential hazards.
In late 2020, the Sicilian cable made headlines when it registered a gigantic submarine current. Experts think this intense, opposite-directed current was set off when an undersea landslide occurred. These events make a strong case for transparent, real-time monitoring. This is particularly important in regions at risk for earthquakes, where sudden underwater geological shifts could have dire consequences for coastal communities.
Coupling this technology with the ability to identify minute deformations across active deep-sea fault lines expands the potential even further. By looking for subtle movements in the ocean floor, researchers hope to enhance early warning systems for undersea quakes. This progress would save lives and property from flooding.
Expanding Potential Applications
The outsize implications of this research reach beyond the immediate findings in Guadeloupe and Sicily. The innovative technology developed as part of the FOCUS project presents exciting opportunities for implementation to earthquake-prone areas across the globe. This includes places such as Japan, Cascadia, and most of the ring in the Mediterranean.
Partnership and funding are both essential to multiplying these efforts by a factor of one hundred. The ocean floor could become an integral part of global environmental monitoring systems with further development and partnerships among scientists, governments, and private entities. Using pre-existing underwater infrastructure doesn’t just make the monitoring possible, it encourages more efficient uses of technology to monitor and measure environmental changes.
For their part, researchers are very much still perfecting these techniques. They see a day when these underwater cables are powerful instruments of discovery, helping us make sense of an ever-changing planet. Innovation through technology and collaboration offers hope for balancing ecological concerns with disaster readiness in areas prone to vulnerability.