DAS systems typically produce ~10tb of data per 50m of cable per day. So a 1km cable would produce around 73 petabytes per year. The San Andreas fault is around

DAS systems typically produce ~10tb of data per 50m of cable per day. So a 1km cable would produce around 73 petabytes per year. The San Andreas fault is around 1300km long, so simply having a cable next to it would produce around 94 exabytes of data per year. It quickly becomes obvious that the computing needs will soak up any cost saving measures. I think it's strange they even mention the cost of a seismometer in the article.