Muon tomography of volcanoes in South America

这项提议的重点是研究介子断层扫描在南美火山研究中的潜力，目的是预测火山爆发，警告附近的居民避免严重后果。哥伦比亚有十几座活火山，南美洲总共有100多座活火山，对附近城镇的居民构成了重大威胁。过去，这些火山的突然喷发造成了重大灾难，最近的一次是内华达德尔鲁伊斯火山的喷发，融化的冰雪将火山泥流带到人口稠密的地区，造成约2万人伤亡。预防火山爆发是不可能的，但研究火山结构并监测其活动可能会减少灾害的风险。μ子断层扫描已经被确立为研究地质结构和人造建筑的工具，如金字塔、火山和二氧化碳储存的地质库。该技术的潜力已得到认可，并对某些特定病例的敏感性进行了评估。我们在此建议研究该技术在研究和监测南美洲火山上部结构方面的敏感性，以预测最终喷发期间可能的碎片优先路径，从而显着降低相关灾害的风险。

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.