Inauguration: 12 July at 14,30 pm - Department of Mathematics and Geosciences of the University of Trieste
Very high precision electric motors, three-dimensional scanning systems, high-speed cameras and very high resolution cameras. These are just some of the monitoring and experimentation equipment present in the SMOLAB analog modeling laboratory (Small scale modeling of geological processes laboratory; Laboratory for the small-scale simulation of geological processes) which will be inaugurated on Tuesday 12 July at 14,30 pm Trieste, at the Palazzina O of the Department of Mathematics and Geosciences of the University of Trieste. The project stems from an initiative of the University of Trieste - Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, with the collaboration of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS).
Analog modeling has been used in geological research since the XNUMXth century, coinciding with the birth of Earth Sciences as an independent scientific discipline. Kinematics of orogens, mechanics of faults, brittle/ductile deformation association, dynamics of subduction environments, are some of the sectors of geology that have benefited from the studies conducted through the small-scale modeling of natural systems.
Today, thanks to modern technologies, analog models are called to face new challenges. The small-scale reproduction of long-term geological phenomena, i.e. that develop over millions of years (e.g. growth and evolution of mountain ranges), or very short-term i.e. a few seconds (e.g. earthquakes), can be reproduced in the laboratory with ever greater accuracy.
For information: Lorenzo Bonini, e-mail: