DIAS Headquarters, 10 Burlington Road - D04C932 contact@dias.ie 00353 (0) 16140100

DIAS scientists explore the vibrations of the deep ocean

The deep ocean remains one of the final frontiers of the unknown on our planet. New research by scientists at DIAS published today in Nature Communications reveals how interactions between the coupling of the deep ocean and land affects certain seismic vibrations.

Wind-driven ocean waves generate continuous Earth vibrations that are observed all around the world. This new study investigates the origin of particular seismic waves called Love waves which are induced by ocean waves. This brings new insights on the complex interactions that couple ocean processes to the solid Earth.

Dr Florian Le Pape, lead author: Over the past 15 years, ocean waves induced seismology has significantly impacted our understanding of the Earth. Knowing more about Love waves present in the seismic noise is not only beneficial for a better imaging and monitoring of the Earth, from large faults to volcanoes, but it also brings further insights on the relationship between seismology and ocean climate observations.

The open access article, “How deep ocean-land coupling controls the generation of secondary microseism love waves” can be found at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22591-5

Numerical simulation of ocean induced waves offshore Ireland