Description du projet
La détection de secousses et de tremblements à l’échelle nanométrique renforcera la gestion de crise
Alors que les populations augmentent, de plus en plus de personnes vivent près de volcans et de failles sismiques. Une mesure juste et précise des petites tensions transitoires à déplacement lent précédant les éruptions volcaniques et les tremblements de terre est indispensable à la protection des infrastructures et des vies humaines. Le carbure de silicium (SiC), notamment sous forme cristalline cubique à trois couches (3C‑SiC), a fait l’objet d’une attention accrue en tant que capteur de tension mécanique hautement sensible. Le projet SiC nano for PicoGeo, financé par l’UE, développe un système innovant de mesure de la tension de terrain pour la surveillance des risques géologiques exploitant ce matériau unique. Il a le potentiel de détecter la tension avec une sensibilité environ 100 fois plus élevée par rapport à la technologie actuelle. L’utilisation de lasers à fibre pour un fonctionnement en circuit fermé entièrement optique permettra d’effectuer une lecture électronique de localisations éloignées de celle du capteur.
Objectif
The project addresses an innovative and radical vision, enabled by a new technology concept that challenges current paradigms of high resolution strain detection for Geoscience and Geohazard monitoring. The goal is the development of a radically new dynamic ground strain measurement technology with an ultra-high resolution of 10-12 that is about two order of magnitude better than the presently available technology. The new technology is based on combining the high performance 3C-SiC material with a high Young modulus (almost 3 times higher than silicon) that improves the sensibility of the actual strain sensor, with fiber lasers for novel all-optical closed-loop operation of the resonator. This design gives the opportunity to use an electronic readout far from the borehole and easily accessible out of the deep drilling. In geophysical monitoring the proposed innovative instrument will allow to detect precisions not obtainable with the current instruments. Ultra small and slow strain transients preceding earthquakes and eruptions could be revealed and both new understanding of the volcano and of the seismology process can be obtained. This new sensor will strongly reduce the cost of the strain sensor and will promote a large impulse in the physics study of both the volcanic areas and of the seismogenic faults. Moreover, the small dimension and the cheap cost will allow to monitor a dense vertical profile of strain along a same hole. Therefore, the project outcomes will have direct implications in forecasting volcanic eruptions and thus improve volcano-seismic crisis management. At the end of the project a start-up of one innovative frontier laboratory for advanced monitoring of dynamic strain associated to volcanic and seismic processes will be done. This “Pico strain Etna Lab” will be the starting point of a new network infrastructure that could support and improve the main volcanic regions and the main faults in Europe.
Champ scientifique
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringfibers
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologyvolcanology
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologyseismology
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- social sciencessociologygovernancecrisis management
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinateur
00185 Roma
Italie