Volcanic Activity

ONYX™ is used to monitor fiber in cables buried on volcanoes to detect and track seismic activity. This information is being used to map the locations of volcanic activity and the information is being developed to provide a real-time warning to neighbouring populations of imminent eruptions and seismic events.

Monitoring the Cryosphere

As our planet gets hotter due to climate change, monitoring changes in the cryosphere has never been more important. The small size, weight, and low power requirements of ONYX™ make it an ideal instrument to take to the hostile environments of the Arctic and Antarctic.

Seafloor monitoring

Fiber in cables deployed on the seabed can be used to monitor coastal morphology, wave, and seabed current dynamics in the littoral, as well as seismic activity on the seabed in deeper water caused by the motion of oceanic tectonic plates and the activity of submarine volcanoes. Whale songs can also be detected, enabling identification and tracking of migrating populations.

Tohoku University – Sakurajima Volcano

A century ago, a major eruption rocked Sakurajima Volcano, leaving the people of neighboring Kagoshima concerned ever since. Monitoring the volcano is of paramount importance to predict and prepare for future large-scale eruptions. To achieve this, Tohoku University has deployed an ONYX™ Sensing Unit connected to fibers in two buried cables: one running 40 km around the base and the other extending 4 km up the side of the volcano. This setup allows Tohoku University to monitor seismic activity, explosions, and eruptions in real-time, thereby mitigating the risk of system failures during significant volcanic events. The approach is not only effective but also cost-efficient.

Oregan State University
– Coastal morphology

The Coastal Boundary Dynamics Group in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University is using the ONYX™ to understand nearshore oceanographic processes. Their research group broadly studies coastal morphology, boundary hydrodynamics, and nature-based engineering solutions. They have been expanding the use DAS to quantitatively record ocean surface gravity waves and bathymetric evolution. The ONYX™ Sensing Unit allows them to measure fiber-optic cable strain continuously through the beach, swash zone, surf zone, and onto the continental shelf.

University of Washington
– Ice Flow/Glacier Dynamics

In August 2023, the Earth and Space Science group at the University of Washington embarked on an important research deployment to Greenland, using the ONYX™ system to collect data. The ONYX™ unit’s efficient power consumption allowed the team to utilize solar energy in the field, facilitating the capture of one month’s worth of data using a self-deployed 10km subsea fiber. The ONYX™ system proved instrumental in gathering precise data to measure ice flow and record seismo- acoustic signatures associated with glacier calving.