The University of Malta is Malta’s foremost higher education and research institution. It presently hosts about 11,500 students, including around 1,700 international students, from over 100 different countries, and 1000 visiting overseas students, following full-time or part-time degree and diploma courses.

By liaising with one of Malta’s telecommunication operators, the University of Malta brings to the SENSEI project a submarine fibre-optic cable that links Malta to Sicily, running over the geologically interesting Malta Escarpment. The University of Malta will also be involved with the data analysis aspects of this project, particularly in the relationship between the interferometric and standard seismometer data. These roles play to the strengths of the SENSEI team at the University of Malta, which spans the Department of Physics and the Department of Geosciences.

Together with other SENSEI partners, the University of Malta has been involved in a number of high-profile studies that demonstrated the stability of submarine optical fibres and their suitability for detecting geophysical processes.

Through the SENSEI project, the University of Malta will deepen its experience with time and frequency distribution, help develop further a nascent field of geophysical research, and contribute to improving the monitoring of seismic processes in the Mediterranean and beyond.

Read also:

• G. Marra et al., “Ultrastable laser interferometry for earthquake detection with terrestrial and submarine cables,” Science 361, 486 (2018) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat4458
• C. Clivati et al., “Optical frequency transfer over submarine fiber links,” Optica 5, 893 (2018) https://opg.optica.org/optica/fulltext.cfm?uri=optica-5-8-893
• C. Clivati et al., “Fiber sensing with internet cables: Monitoring offshore oceanographic and geological processes in the central Mediterranean Sea,” EGU25, 12354 (2025) https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/EGU25-12354.html

…more to come: stay tuned!