THUNDERQUAKES: A NEW WAY TO IMAGE THE EARTH'S SUBSURFACE

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., Aug. 21 -- Pennsylvania State University issued the following news release:

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Seismic waves produced by thunderstorms, called thunderquakes, can be used as a novel source for seismic imaging, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

Using existing fiber-optic telecommunication cables buried just a few feet below the ground under Penn State's University Park campus, the researchers developed a new way to use distributed acoustic sensing technology, or DAS, to better understand how atmospheric acoustic waves transfer energy into the ground. They also demonstrated how this coupling can be used in seismic imaging. Their findings were published today (Aug. 21) in Science Advances.

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