← Back to Sessions

Assessing Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) for Moonquake Detection

Description: 

We present how DAS could greatly enhance geophysical networks on the Moon. Moonquakes can provide valuable insights into the lunar interior and its geophysical processes. However, extreme scattering of the lunar seismic wave makes seismic phase identification and source characterization difficult on individual seismic stations. DAS, on the other hand, can detect the full waveform even in especially high scattering environments to pick up scattered phases that were previously unidentified by standard low-density seismic networks. We explore the potential of DAS to detect moonquakes if installed on the lunar surface by answering two questions: How could DAS advance Moon seismology? Can DAS detect moonquakes? To answer, we first generate synthetic DAS recordings to show that DAS is especially suited to measuring moon quakes in highly scattered environments with low seismic velocity on the Moon's near surface. Then, we compare the real Apollo seismometer recordings to the minimum resolution of DAS on the Earth in the very low-noise environment of Antarctica. We find that all thermal moonquakes previously recorded by the Apollo geophones can be detected by current DAS. Current DAS sensitivity will also allow for 60% of the meteoroid impacts and moonquakes that were recorded hemisphere-wide on all the Apollo seismometers to be detected. Our results show that this detection percentage should increase to over 90% with achievable and expected improvements in DAS equipment. Overall, we show that current DAS technology would be able to detect on average about 15 moonquakes per day, with large fluctuations depending on recording during lunar sunrise/sunset and the moon’s distance from perigee/apogee. Utilizing DAS for lunar seismology promises a transformative advance in analyzing wave propagation on the moon, paving the way for significant insights into the Moon's internal structure.

Session: Advancing Seismology with Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing - I

Type: Oral

Date: 5/3/2024

Presentation Time: 08:45 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Allen

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Authors