Muon Tomography Applied to a Dense Uranium Deposit at the McArthur River Mine

Schouten, D.; Ledru, Patrick

doi:10.1029/2018jb015626

Cited by 37 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Cârloganu et al 2013), but some work suggests the feasibility of deploying muon detectors inside mine workings or even boreholes (e.g. Liu et al 2012;Schouten & Ledru 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Joint inversion methods with relative density offset correction for muon tomography and gravity data, with application to volcano imaging

Lelièvre

Barnoud

Niess

et al. 2019

Geophysical Journal International

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is a relatively new geophysical imaging method that uses muons to provide estimates of average densities along particular lines of sight. Muography can only see above the horizontal elevation of the detector and it is therefore attractive to attempt a joint inversion of muography data with gravity data, which is also responsive to density but generally requires combination with another geophysical data set to overcome issues related to non-uniqueness and poor depth resolution. Some previous work has investigated this joint inverse problem and demonstrated the potential improvements to be gained by jointly inverting muography and gravity data. However, there has yet to be a thorough investigation of different numerical approaches for formulating the joint inverse problem. Particularly important is how to account for the fact that even though the two data types are sensitive to the same physical quantity, density, they respond through different response functions. Moreover, the two measurements are affected by different systematic uncertainties that are difficult to model. In this work, we considered an approximation where the two density quantities, inferred from the two data types, can be related by an unknown scalar offset. We considered various existing and new joint inversion methods that might solve this problem and we applied them to a synthetic volcano imaging scenario based on the Puy de Dôme volcano in the Central Massif region of France. We used unstructured meshes in our modelling to adequately honour the significant topography in that scenario. Our experiments indicated that the most successful joint inversion method for this type of geological scenario was one in which the data misfit function is reformulated to automatically determine the best-fitting offset following a least-squares minimization argument. However, other approaches showed merit and we suggest several of the investigated methods be applied and compared for any specific joint inversion scenario.

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“…Cârloganu et al 2013), but some work suggests the feasibility of deploying muon detectors inside mine workings or even boreholes (e.g. Liu et al 2012;Schouten & Ledru 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Joint inversion methods with relative density offset correction for muon tomography and gravity data, with application to volcano imaging

Lelièvre

Barnoud

Niess

et al. 2019

Geophysical Journal International

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“…5) are routinely interpreted as discrete petrological units (e.g. Tanaka and Yokoyama 2008;Tanaka 2015;Schouten and Ledru, 2018) or structural discontinuities such as conduit pipes (e.g. Oláh et al 2018Oláh et al , 2019, cavities (e.g.…”

Section: Essential Aspects Of Muographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lesparre et al 2010;Tanaka et al 2007b;Varga et al 2016;Bouteille et al 2016). Muography is increasingly gaining ground in a greater number of geoscientific applications ranging from mining engineering (Schouten and Ledru 2018) to geotechnical engineering, archaeological exploration, the industry and more (cf. Morishima et al 2017;Procureur 2018;Baccani et al 2019;Gómez et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Athanassas

2020

Med. Geosc. Rev.

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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.

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“…In 1970, the Nobelist Louis Alvarez and his collaborators performed a radiographic measurement of the Chephren Pyramid in Egypt and they were able to exclude the existence of a hidden burial chamber [3]. Following these pioneering measurements, more recently muon absorption radiography was taken again into consideration, at first by Japanese groups [4] and later by Italian, French, Canadian, American, and other groups ( [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], to name a few) for application in the fields of volcanology, archaeology, and mining. The MURAVES project (MUon RAdiography of VESuvius) [14], born of the collaboration between INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) and INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics), aims to study the interior of Mount Vesuvius near Naples using muon radiography.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Muon Radiography of Ancient Mines: The San Silvestro Archaeo-Mining Park (Campiglia Marittima, Tuscany)

et al. 2019

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Muon absorption radiography is an imaging technique based on the measurement of the absorption of cosmic ray muons. This technique has recently been used successfully to investigate the presence of unknown cavities in the Bourbon Gallery in Naples and in the Chephren Pyramid at Cairo. The MIMA detector (Muon Imaging for Mining and Archaeology) is a prototype muon tracker for muon radiography for application in the fields of archaelogy and mining. It is made of three pairs of X-Y planes each consisting of 21 scintillator bars with a silicon photomultiplier readout. The detector is compact, robust, easily transportable, and has a low power consumption: all of which makes the detector ideal for measurements in confined and isolated environments. With this detector, a measurement from inside the Temperino mine in the San Silvestro archaeo-mining park in Tuscany was performed. The park includes about 25 km of mining tunnels arranged on several levels that have been exploited from the Etruscan time. The measured muon absorption was compared to the simulated one, obtained from the information provided by 3D laser scanner measurements and cartographic maps of the mountain above the mine, in order to obtain information about the average density of the rock. This allowed one to confirm the presence of a partially accessible exploitation opening and provided some hints regarding the presence of a high-density body within the rock.

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Muon Tomography Applied to a Dense Uranium Deposit at the McArthur River Mine

Cited by 37 publications

References 41 publications

Joint inversion methods with relative density offset correction for muon tomography and gravity data, with application to volcano imaging

Joint inversion methods with relative density offset correction for muon tomography and gravity data, with application to volcano imaging

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

Muon Radiography of Ancient Mines: The San Silvestro Archaeo-Mining Park (Campiglia Marittima, Tuscany)

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