Italy’s Mount Etna has recently put on another spectacular display as it once again erupted on the island of Sicily, and scientists are able to keep a close watch over it, preventing any major disaster, thanks to a collection of high-technology tools.
Indeed, scientists have covered Europe’s tallest and most active volcano with a cutting-edge network of sensors and cameras that provide constant, real-time monitoring of its activity, including earthquakes and tremors around it, according to a report by RFI.
According to Marco Aliotta of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), the organization’s team also carries out geodetic monitoring with GPS stations, strainmeters, and tiltmeters that measure deformations in the ground, like uplift and subsidence.
Furthermore, INGV observes gas compositions of emissions such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide to learn about magma activity, as well as deploys thermal imaging and satellite imagery that detect changes in surface temperature and determine new lava flows.
“This system provides crucial data, enabling scientists to better assess volcanic stages and quickly issue alerts to the public, civil protection agencies, and other institutions.”
Monitoring Mount Etna with quantum technology
That said, arguably the most interesting part of this whole system is the quantum sensors introduced in 2020, making it the first time that quantum technology advances have been applied to the monitoring of active volcanoes. Specifically, it includes the Absolute Quantum Gravimeter (AQG).
As Daniele Carbone, a senior researcher at INGV Etna Observatory (INGV-OE) and the author of the paper studying the performance of AQG back in 2022, explained, the tool tracks variations in the Earth’s gravitational field, revealing useful information about what lies beneath, be it tunnels and caves or the dynamics of groundwater and even magma:
“The AQG, installed in the summit crater zone of Mt. Etna, has provided a gravity time series free from the instrumental issues which affect other gravimeters. Even under unfavorable environmental conditions, it has been possible to detect small gravity changes over different time-scales, reflective of volcano-related underground mass changes.”
This plug-and-play, portable, and easy-to-handle quantum sensor can measure such variations of the gravity field using a quantum technology known as atomic interferometry. With a cloud of rubidium atoms laser-cooled close to absolute zero as the test mass, it can sense minuscule variations in gravity.
Then, there’s Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), referring to the fiber optic cables that act as sensors, analyzing light backscattered in them when vibrations deform the cables for instance, more precisely determining Etna’s volcanic signature from a distance and mapping hidden near-surface volcanic structural features.
Elsewhere, our planet is far from being the only one with volcanoes, although out there, they are far more explosive than on Earth, as NASA scientists on the Juno mission have earlier this year discovered the most intense volcanic eruptions that ever happened on Jupiter’s moon, Io.
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