Prevention and preparedness of the Strait of Messina - Reggio Calabria: An earthquake forecasting and didactic project

Abstract

This contribution is addressed to an introductive university course on the  correlation existing between radon emission and earthquakes processes held following  a flipped-class approach where students receive didactic materials prior to face-to-face  lessons. This research was initially started to investigate the real correlation between Radon  emission from the Earth and the occurrence of strong earthquakes by using measurements  of hourly Radon flow variation. During quiet seismogenic conditions, we observe an  unvarying level of Radon emission in the air. Before a strong earthquake, substantial  variations of Radon ( 222 Rn) concentration have been observed in the air, probably because  of the increase of thermodynamic energy inside the Earth. The physical processes affecting  earthquakes are still not fully understood; therefore, we are interested in investigating a  wide variety of signals observed before an earthquake, ranging from chemical, electric, and  magnetic variations. The goal is to be able to estimate the earthquake magnitude, timing also  location in advance with a good approximation. The experimental observation and research  studies were carried out by G. Giuliani Permanent Foundation since 2002 in Abruzzo. The  innovative methodology of observations with Gamma detectors allowed us to reveal a close  correlation between the different physical phenomena during the preparation phase of strong  earthquakes. We master the methodology of measuring the hourly flow of 222 Rn gas decay,  which provides a good correlation with the occurrence of strong earthquakes. To advance  the reliability of our assessment, we added more parameters to our observations, such as  magnetic and RF. The joint analysis advances our understanding of the processes underlying  the earthquake occurrence. The experimental observation of Radon has been tested for  more than a decade in the Abruzzo region. The initial results provided the baseline of  reliable correlation between radon variations and earthquakes that could be used as an alert  mechanism for the forthcoming seismic events. The multiparametric approach of detecting  pre-earthquakes signals provided the robustness in detecting the earthquake preparation  phase. There are no doubts that by expanding the network of gamma sensors, we achieve  much better signal detection, which is critical for the better spatial correlation of Radon  variations with the earthquake processes.