Abstract
While radon in soil gases has been identified for decades as a potential precursor of volcanic eruptions, there has been a recent interest for monitoring radon in air on active volcanoes. We present here the first network of outdoor air radon sensors that was installed successfully on Mt. Etna volcano, Sicily, Italy in September 2019. Small radon sensors designed for workers and home dosimetry were tropicalized in order to be operated continuously in harsh volcanic conditions with an autonomy of several months. Two stations have been installed on the south flank of the volcano at ~3000 m of elevation. A private network has been deployed in order to transfer the measurements from the stations directly to a server located in France, using a low-power wide-area transmission technology from Internet of Things (IoT) called LoRaWAN. Data finally feed a data lake, allowing flexibility in data management and sharing. A first analysis of the radon datasets confirms previous observations, while adding temporal information never accessed before. The observed performances confirm IoT solutions are very adapted to active volcano monitoring in terms of range, autonomy, and data loss.
Highlights
We describe the tropicalization of ÆR+ radon probes in order to make them suitable for deployment at high altitudes (>3000 m) and in acidic environments on Mt
All these challenges have in practice considerably limited the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to monitor active volcanoes
The specific features of the environmental information have been identified for many years, as well as the inadequacy of traditional database management systems to deal with this kind of information and, to handle sensor networks data and to process data of multiple types [34]
Summary
Volcanic eruptions are still today extremely difficult to predict, and geological monitoring mostly relies on the search for precursors. Radon gas emissions in soils have been monitored continuously, and correlations with volcanic or tectonic events have been repeatedly observed [5]. Very few studies have investigated radon concentrations in the air in volcanic areas. Etna central crater that are characterized by enhanced soil fracturation and degassing This suggests that in very active zones where soil radon probes cannot be permanently installed because of high temperature and acidity, soil radon emissions could still be monitored by measurements in the air. To further investigate the potential of radon activity in the air as a tool to monitor active volcanoes, continuous measurements at high frequencies are obviously needed. We present the preliminary deployment and test of a network of monitoring stations designed to provide continuous measurements of radon activity in the air in a volcanic environment
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
