A fiber-optic communication system having two optical channels characterized by different respective group velocities. In an example embodiment, the system comprises an optical receiver capable of measuring a difference in the time of arrival thereto, by way of the two optical channels, of the corresponding signal disturbances caused by a remote ambient event, such as an earthquake or a lightning strike. A signal processor of the receiver can then use the measured time-of-arrival difference to estimate the distance, along the fiber, to the location of the remote ambient event. In some example embodiments, the two optical channels may be different wavelength channels or different spatial modes of a multimode fiber. In some example embodiments, at least one of the two channels may be a payload-data-bearing channel.