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Fibre optics on glaciers open new frontiers for natural disaster predictions
The fibre-optic cables we use to surf the Internet and make phone calls could help predict a landslide or a glacier collapse.
But climate change can increase the likelihood of a collapse: rising temperatures accelerate ice melt, promote the formation of cracks in glaciers, and make mountain slopes more unstable. Compared to traditional seismic sensors, which are placed at specific locations, fibre-optic cables can be more easily installed over a large area, says Fabian Walter, a mass movement expert at the Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape (WSL). Andreas Max Kääb, professor of physical geography and hydrology at the University of Oslo and author of a study on large-volume detachments of mountain glaciersExternal link, also thinks this approach is promising.
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