Muography, a Safe Way of Studying Volcanoes and Nuclear Reactors

SPEAKER:
CRISTINA CARLOGANU, PH.D.

CNRS SENIOR SCIENTIST 

LPC CLERMONT FERRAND/ IN2P3 / BLAISE PASCAL UNIVERSITY

DATE/TIME:
MON, 12/08/2015 – 4:00PM TO 5:00PM
LOCATION:
3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL
Fall 2015 Colloquium Series
Abstract:

Robust, high resolution and large area trackers became available in the last fifteen years and  the old ideas pioneered by George and Alvarez of imaging mountains and pyramids using high energy atmospheric muons started to be put in practice.

All over the world research teams  work on applications in volcanology, archeology and even monitoring the nuclear fuel in Fukushima’s damaged reactors. After a highlight on some muographic projects worldwide, I will concentrate on applications in volcanology and show what we learned after five years of muographic experimentation on a volcano in the French Massive Central, the Puy de Dôme. Muographic imaging is still at its beginning, but hope is high that it could significantly improve the structural studies of volcanoes and  help passing from a qualitative to a quantitative understanding of their evolution.  More multi-probe data and reliable modelling are also the key to reducing human and economic losses during eruptive episodes of volcanoes by increasing the accuracy of the  risk assessment maps.

About the Speaker:

CNRS senior scientist  at LPC Clermont Ferrand/ IN2P3 / Blaise Pascal University
Present research: muographic imaging, PI of TOMUVOL collaboration
Past research :
Study of neutrino oscillations with the ANTARES telescope
Imaging Calorimeters for the ILC detectors
Detection of cosmic tau neutrinos with the radio telescope TREND