A 13-km subsea fiber deployment in the Sea of Galilee for earthquake monitoring and subsurface imaging

We report a new deployment of a purpose-designed, 13-km long optical fiber in the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake within a tectonically active basin along the Dead Sea Fault. The fiber trajectory was designed to cross mapped faults, maximize earthquake detection, location, and focal-mechanism estimation capabilities, and intersect existing monitoring stations. The maximum deployment depth is about 35 m. The ~170 km² lake is covered by 12 strong-motion monitoring stations, which we use to independently validate our seismological analysis. We will present initial results from earthquake monitoring and ambient noise analysis, as well as lessons learned from an academic fiber deployment operation. We suggest that, given adequate planning, such deployments are feasible for many academic groups and can significantly improve observational capabilities in traditionally unmonitored areas.