Distributed Acoustic Sensing Using Dark Fiber for Near-Surface Characterization and Broadband Seismic Event Detection

Abstract We present one of the first case studies demonstrating the use of distributed acoustic sensing deployed on regional unlit fiber-optic telecommunication infrastructure (dark fiber) for broadband seismic monitoring of both near-surface soil properties and earthquake seismology. We recorded 7 months of passive seismic data on a 27 km section of dark fiber stretching from West Sacramento, CA to Woodland, CA, densely sampled at 2 m spacing. This dataset was processed to extract surface wave velocity information using ambient noise interferometry techniques; the resulting V S profiles were used to map both shallow structural profiles and groundwater depth, thus demonstrating that basin-scale variations in…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 1106400, Grant No. DGE 1106400, DE-AC02-05CH11231, DGE 1106400
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: -AC02-05CH11231, Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, 05CH11231, No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02, DGE 1106400, DE-AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02-
• OO
  Office of Science

  Awards: AC02-05CH11231, -AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02, No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231
• LD
  Laboratory Directed Research and Development

  Award: DE-AC02-05CH11231
• LB
  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  Awards: DE-AC02-05CH11231, No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, 05CH11231, AC02-05CH11231