Thunderquakes: Using Thunder to Map the Earth’s Subsurface

Recently, researchers have demonstrated that seismic signals generated when thunder interacts with the ground — called “thunderquakes” — can be detected using ordinary buried fibre-optic cables and potentially used to map the shallow subsurface without drilling.

What are Thunderquakes?

  • Lightning & Thunder: Lightning rapidly superheats surrounding air, producing a shock wave that is heard as thunder.
  • Seismic Conversion: When this atmospheric energy reaches the ground, part of it is converted into seismic waves.
  • Thunderquakes: These ground vibrations produced by thunder are known as thunderquakes.

Air-Coupled Rayleigh Waves

  • Key Seismic Waves: The study identified air-coupled Rayleigh waves, generated when atmospheric ....
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