Overview

• Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and Cal Poly Humboldt report in Science that distributed acoustic sensing on existing land fiber near Arcata imaged the December 2024 magnitude‑7.0 Mendocino earthquake, resolving its magnitude, location and rupture length.
• The high‑resolution data reveal the quake was a rare supershear event, with the fault rupture moving faster than its seismic waves.
• By piggybacking laser interrogators on telecommunications networks such as Vero Fiber’s lines, the approach could deliver rapid inputs to systems like ShakeAlert for earlier warnings.
• Experts say wider use depends on agreements with telecom providers and regulatory safeguards for cable integrity and data security, and the method is intended to supplement rather than replace traditional seismometers.
• Technical constraints remain, including an effective sensing range of roughly 90 miles and engineering challenges for seafloor deployment, though operational DAS examples in places such as Iceland underscore the potential.