Muon tomography of volcanoes in South America

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This proposal focuses on investigating the potential of muon tomography to study volcanoes in South America with a goal to predict an eruption, warn population nearby to avoid dramatic consequences. There are more than a dozen of active volcanoes in Colombia and more than 100 overall in South America that represent significant risk to the population in nearby towns. Sudden eruptions of these volcanoes in the past caused major disasters, the latest one being the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz that melted snow and ice sending lahars into the populated area that resulted in about 20,000 casualties. Preventing volcano eruptions is impossible, but studying volcano structures and monitoring their activity may reduce the risk of disasters.Muon tomography has already been established as a tool for studying geological structures and man-made constructions, such as pyramids, volcanoes and geological repositories for CO2 storage. The potential of the technique has been recognised and sensitivity has been evaluated for some specific cases. We propose here to investigate the sensitivity of this technique to study and monitor the upper structure of volcanoes in South America to predict possible preferential pathways of debris during eventual eruptions thus reducing significantly the risk of associated disasters.