Detecting Earthquakes from Above Both Here —and on Venus?

When we think of earthquake monitoring, we think of ground-based networks of seismometers, ground-hugging fiber-optic cables, and similar ground-based systems. A er all, if trying to detect rumblings within the ground, shouldn’t we hug the ground? Well, not necessarily per an article in Geophysical Research Letters.

A team of French scientists led by Raphael F. Garcia (University of Toulouse) launched a €otilla of 16 high-altitude balloons from Seychelles o… the coast of East Africa. Each had a gondola containing micro-barometers. ‡e balloons soared to an altitude of nearly 11.5 miles and dri ed eastward. Eventually, high above Earth, four of the balloons transmitted signs of a magnitude 7.3 earthquake in the Malay Archipelago.

How does this work? ‡e researchers note that a er an earthquake “the surface of our planet vibrates like the surface of a drum.” ‡ose vibrations send low-frequency sound waves upward as “seismic infrasound,” and those waves were detected by the barometers held alo by the balloons. By identifying and measuring various seismic waves, you can infer both location and magnitude of the quake that started beating Earth’s drum.

‡e scientists hope this “proof-of-concept” study will help detect earthquakes in areas too remote to place ground-based sensors. ‡ey also hope someday to release similar balloons into the atmosphere of Venus, where surface pressures and heat destroy any probes that reach the planetary surface. Might they be able to detect and study the earthquakes and volcanoes of Venus from above? Now that’s a concept!