(ANSA) – NAPLES, 02 OCT – Optical fibers as an innovative seismic sensor, capable of capturing phenomena even of very low magnitude and helping to better understand the genesis of large earthquakes. It is with these objectives that the Irpinia Near Fault Observatory (NFO) was born, the result of the collaboration between Ingv and the University of Naples Federico II: the studies will take place in a symbolic territory, the area between Irpinia and Basilicata which was devastated by the earthquake of November 23, 1980.
In Tito Scalo (Potenza), the installation of an acoustic detection device has recently been completed, with the telecommunications company Metis making a stretch of optical fiber approximately 20 km long available to researchers.
The Observatory, created within the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) and recently financed by a Pnrr project, will carry out two actions: on the one hand the transformation of individual seismic stations into a series of close sensors, capable of capturing microseismicity local even with extremely low magnitudes, and on the other the experimentation on the potential of normal optical fiber as a seismic sensor. “The measurements come from a laser source that sends light pulses inside the fiber”, explains Gilberto Saccorotti, researcher at Ingv. “Every minimal deformation of the fiber modifies the length of the optical path of the pulses and the measurement of this variation allows determining the deformation of the ground due, for example, to the passage of a seismic wave. The device is capable of carrying out these hundreds of observations of times per second, with a spacing of measurement points in the order of a meter, distributed along fibers even tens of kilometers long. This enormous amount of data, compared to current seismometric networks, is potentially capable of photographing in a much more detailed and the deformation of the ground associated with the seismic phenomenon continues”.
“Irpinia is the ideal location to test these new technological systems because the great availability of parametric networks that we already have in this area will allow us to analyze the new data obtained, verify them and understand their potential”, adds Gaetano Festa, professor of Physics at the University of Naples Federico II. “We are in a new field of research, but what we expect is a huge leap in quality because it is like having thousands of sensors available on the stretch under investigation, which provide continuous data in real time.” (HANDLE).
2024-10-02 11:19:28