Seismic Detection: ASN’s SMART CC Solution Captures Japanese Earthquake from Les Ulis, France
On the morning of April 20th , the ASN R&D team in our headquarters of les Ulis (just outside Paris) was conducting routine integration testsof our SMART CC solution, aimed at serving the needs of climate change monitoring. The setup under test, replicating a real SMART cable system, included one full CC Node final product, communicating over a fiber pair to a CC Portal equipment, and exporting the data in miniseed format through a CC Gateway.
At 7:53 AM UTC, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook the north-eastern coast of Japan.
Around 15 minutes later, the first seismic wave (P Wave) reached the Paris area and after 35 to 40 minutes the strongest surface waves, after traveling 9380 km. Traces of the waves were perfectly visible on the screens of the test team in Les Ulis, reported from the embedded CC Node seismometer through the different components of the CC Solution.
After analysis, including the realignment of Z, North and East axis thanks to the orientation data reported by the North Finder embedded in the node, these traces showed a very strong similarity with the measurement from the Paris-Jussieu reference seismic station
These results highlight the capability of the CC solution, ASN’s implementation of environmental data measurement within the SMART cable initiative, as a robust platform for scientific monitoring across global submarine cable networks. The system delivers high-fidelity observations with clear phase resolution, enabling reliable detection and characterization of seismic signals, while fully preserving the expected performance and reliability of transoceanic telecommunications traffic.
This effort is supported through collaboration with RBR and seismic instrumentation leader Nanometrics, contributing to the development of advanced, innovative solutions within ASN’s Climate Change program.
