Abstract
The shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which ran aground on 13 January 2012 on the northwestern coast of Giglio Island (Italy), required continuous monitoring of the position and movement of the vessel to guarantee the security of workers and rescuers operating around and within the wreck and to support shipwreck removal operations. Furthermore, understanding the geomechanical properties and stability behaviour of the coastal rock mass and rocky seabed underlying the ship was of similar importance. To assess the stability conditions of the ship, a ground-based monitoring system was installed in front of the wreck. The network included a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) device, which was used to perform remote semiautomatic geomechanical characterization of the observed rock mass. Using TLS survey techniques, three main discontinuity sets were identified in the granitic rock mass of Giglio Island. Furthermore, a multibeam bathymetric survey was used to qualitatively characterize the seabed. To integrate the processed TLS data and quantitatively describe the rock mass quality, a subsequent field survey was carried out to provide a rock mass geomechanical evaluation (from very good to moderate quality). Based on the acquired information, kinematic and stability analyses were performed to create a spatial prediction of rock failure mechanisms in the study area. The obtained kinematic hazard index values were generally low; only the plane failure index reached slightly higher values. The general stability of the rock mass was confirmed by the stability analysis, which yielded a high safety factor value (approximately 12).
Highlights
On the night of 13 January 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship changed her original course, sailed close to the coast of Giglio Island (Tuscany, Italy), and crashed on the underwater rock of Le Scole, approximately 800 m south of the port entrance (Giglio Porto) on the east coast of the island (Schroder-Hinricks et al 2012)
The shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which ran aground on 13 January 2012 on the northwestern coast of Giglio Island (Italy), required continuous monitoring of the position and movement of the vessel to guarantee the security of workers and rescuers operating around and within the wreck and to support shipwreck removal operations
For underwater rock mass characterization, the Department of Civil Protection (DPC) requested that the OGS (National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics) perform a multibeam survey to obtain a 3D representation of the seafloor surrounding the Costa Concordia cruise ship and to analyse in detail the morphological and bathymetric characteristics
Summary
On the night of 13 January 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship changed her original course, sailed close to the coast of Giglio Island (Tuscany, Italy), and crashed on the underwater rock of Le Scole, approximately 800 m south of the port entrance (Giglio Porto) on the east coast of the island (Schroder-Hinricks et al 2012). To ensure the safety of the personnel involved in the SaR operations, continuous surveillance of the potential movement of the wreck was considered necessary, and the DPC requested a sophisticated ground-based real-time warning system, which was installed on Punta Gabbianara. To support removal operations and better understand the stability of the Punta Gabbianara rock mass and the underwater reef, detailed study of the geomechanical and stability behaviour was necessary. Taking advantage of the deployment of the laser scanner device for monitoring operations (Fig. 2), semiautomatic structural characterization of the TLS-observed portion of Punta Gabbianara was performed. For underwater rock mass characterization, the DPC requested that the OGS (National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics) perform a multibeam survey to obtain a 3D representation of the seafloor surrounding the Costa Concordia cruise ship and to analyse in detail the morphological and bathymetric characteristics. All the acquired data were used to investigate the main rock failure mechanisms affecting the Punta Gabbianara rock mass and the granitic seabed and to perform a stability analysis of the investigated area
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