Muography for geological hazard assessment in the South Aegean active volcanic arc (SAAVA)

Abstract

This article reviews the suitability of muography in identifying geological hazards in the southern Aegean active volcanic arc (SAAVA). Santorini and Nisyros, the most active members of SAAVA, exhibit critical structural failures which are controlled by the regional tectonic stress field. Comparable structural failures in other volcanic complexes (e.g. Canary Islands, Hawaii, Stromboli, etc.) are linked to high geological risk. However, the amount of hazard stemming from potential rupture of volcanoes in the Aegean Sea has not been fully assessed yet, because the volcanoes' intricate structure challenges both conventional geological and geophysical mapping. On the other hand, muography constitutes a novel remote sensing technique which exploits the penetration of the cosmic rays in the upper solid earth to produce images of the upper solid earth at high spatial resolution. Here, the performance of muography in identifying geological hazards in the SAAVA is evaluated on the basis of available geological information and similar case studies with satisfactory results.

First experimental results of the cosmic time synchronizer for a wireless, precise, and perpetual time synchronization system

“…A large fraction of these muons are relativistic in nature and they penetrate the atmosphere losing only a small fraction of their energy predominantly by ionization. The penetrative nature of muons has been utilized to visualize the inside structures of gigantic objects such as volcanoes, 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 local ocean dynamics 40 cultural heritage, 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 underwater/underground positioning 47 and navigation, 48 and postquantum cryptography. 49 …”

Volcanotectonics: the tectonics and physics of volcanoes and their eruption mechanics

“…Since most dike/sheet injections do not result in eruptions (Gudmundsson 2020), a more fruitful approach might be to look for evidence of earthquake-triggered dike/sheet injections rather than eruptions. Advances in muography, magnetotelluric and gravimetric techniques will allow further constraints on volcanotectonic structures that can be linked to field measurements (Athanassas 2020;Pearce et al 2020;Okubo 2020). Also, global satellite-measured precipitation will help to understand how infiltrated rain/ground water affect volcanoes under unrest (Farquharson and Amelung 2020).…”

Muography of the Active Sakurajima Volcano: Recent Results and Future Perspectives of Hazard Assessment

“…Muography is a novel imaging technique that can measure mass density changes related to volcanic processes by means of the measurement of cosmic-ray muons penetrated through the volcanic edifice, e.g., see [6]. Since the 2010s, volcano observatories are under development in Americas [7,8], Asia [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16], and Europe [17,18,19,20,21,22]. In this work, we review the recent observations of the Multi-wire-proportional-chamber-based Muography Observation System (MMOS) [11,23,24] of Sakurajima Muography Observatory (SMO).…”