Fiber-sensing technology can provide early warning for volcanic eruptions

Volcanic Eruption Warnings Are Now Possible With Fiber-Optic Cables

Learn about the escalating threat of volcanoes in Iceland and how a new warning system is helping to inform the public when eruptions will occur.

Fiber-sensing technology can provide early warning for volcanic eruptions

The Reykjanes Peninsula at Iceland's southwestern edge is one of the country's most populated regions, and it is also one of the most volcanically active. In 2024, sensing technology developed at Caltech was deployed in the region to study the motion of subsurface magma and its eruption into lava on the surface.

Icelandic scientists, together with foreign colleagues, have demonstrated how a fiber optic cable can be used to map magma movements. This allows smaller movements to be measured than previously possible with GPS measurements and satellite-based wave imaging (InSAR). Low-frequency signals have been monitored in a hundred-kilometer-long fiber optic cable on the Reykjanes Peninsula since November 2023. It has been found that these signals can be u…