Abstract

Ring Laser Gyroscopes (RLGs) exploiting the Sagnac effect have recently proved to be reliable instruments to sense ground rotations induced by large earthquakes [1-3], thanks to their extremely high resolution, better than 10⁻⁹ rad/s. The possibility of using them to study the ground motion in more detail seems very promising and could open new possibilities for seismology. Unfortunately, RLGs are complex devices, that require dedicated instrumentation, complex optics and careful maintenance. On the other hand, passive gyroscopes based on optical fiber (FOGs) are cheaper and robust, but have a poor resolution, that makes them useless for scientific purposes (with the exception of the experiment described in [4]).

© 2013 IEEE