ArtEmis is an EU project that today consists of 14 differentinstitutions collectively working towards the final goal of buildinga system that can make trustworthy earthquake predictions withthe help of radon gas. The purpose of this report is to analyse theconcentration of radon measured by four out of six prototype sensorsinstalled by the ArtEmis project. In the occurrence of an earthquake, tectonic plates slide together,causing stress levels to rise within the Earth’s crust and microcracksbegin to form. When these microcracks form, specific elements suchas radon gas can ascend toward the surface and reach groundwater.Once in groundwater, the concentration of radon can be measuredby analysing the amount of γ rays at certain energies using γ-rayspectroscopy. With energy spectra measured by these sensors, an energy intervalcorresponding to the presence of the isotope 222Rn could be identified,namely the interval around 609 keV. This stems from a daughterisotope of 222Rn. Further analysis on the activity over time, andcomparisons to instances when earthquakes occurred, could thenbe done. These measurements were also tested against a statisticalmodel based on Gaussian distribution, showing correlation in severalcases. One sensor location had an extra interesting find. Here it wasable to see, on two different occasions, a distinct increase in 222Rnconcentration roughly 10 days prior to an earthquake.Considering that these sensors are active for the very first timeduring the time span of this report, unintended behaviour occurredon several occasions. A large focus of the project currently lies onfixing these issues. This leads to limited conclusions being able tobe drawn from such a short time span, but could give indication ofpositive results moving forward.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-349729 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Gustafsson, Simon, Forsman, Tim |
| Publisher | KTH, Skolan för teknikvetenskap (SCI) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | TRITA-SCI-GRU ; 2024:219 |
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