Analysis of a Local Earthquake in the Arctic Using a 120 KM Long Fibre-Optic Cable

Summary For this extended abstract, a 120 km long fibre-optic cable has been used to enhance the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of recorded P- and S-wave signals from a local earthquake and to estimate the earthquake hypocenter location. The Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technique provides a unique possibility to increase the receiver density globally. It can, for example, improve the detection rate of small, induced earthquakes in CO2 storage sites or producing oil and gas fields. This work shows how DAS alone can be used to locate a small magnitude mid-Atlantic earthquake using arrival times, enhanced by various signal processing techniques, from the measurement on an Arctic fibre-optic cable. The earthquake location obtained using the DAS data was found to be within 17 km of the catalogue location reported by NORSAR and the Norwegian National Seismic Network. This shows how fibre-optic cables offer unique complementary methods to enhance received seismic signals and to traditional source localization for earthquakes and other seismic sources.