The collaboration agreement signed between the Navy and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) for the development and enhancement of projects and infrastructures for scientific research at sea and maritime safety, with particular reference to emergencies arising from the natural phenomena.
The Agreement between the Navy and INGV is part of the programmatic lines dual use which see the Armed Forces engaged in activities in favor of the community aimed at safety, environmental protection and civil protection.
Research activities and projects in the geophysics sector for purposes useful for the knowledge and prediction of natural phenomena connected to the sea; mutual support to the development of centers of excellence in hydro-oceanographic and geophysical research through the provision of data, models and personnel training; collaboration in research projects aimed at EU programmes, these are the key themes of the collaboration agreement, signed by the Chief of Staff of the Navy, Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi, and the President of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV Stefano Gresta.
With the Agreement, the foundations are laid for a structured relationship of institutional collaboration for the development of partnerships in the field of research, planning, training, culture of the sea, maritime safety also through the involvement of the bodies competent for the management of emergencies. Since 2005, with over 22 joint campaigns, the Navy and the INGV have been collaborating in research activities at sea, with the exchange of skills and relevant technical-scientific results.
The first half of 2015 has already seen the development of two activities. In fact, on 8 and 9 June 2015, an important series of tests was carried out on board the training ship Palinuro by some researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), of the Ligurian Marine Technologies District (DLTM), of Historical Oceanography Society (HOS) and the Environmental Monitoring Company Strategic Innovative Research (MARIS) with the aim of evaluating the possibilities offered by the ship to carry out, in the future, training and technical-scientific education campaigns for young university students in order to improve the knowledge of the marine ecosystem retracing the historical stages of knowledge, methods of analysis and the contribution of marine technologies.
The second collaboration, which began last year and continued in 2015, concerned the scientific experiment "Tomo-Etna”, which aims to better understand the internal dynamics of the Sicilian volcano, within the context of the two European projects Mediterranean Supersite Volcanoes ed Eurofleets 2. The Galatea ship of the Navy took part in the experiment as part of the institutional campaign of hydrographic surveys in favor of the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy. The sophisticated sensors on board and the collaboration of the on-board hydrographic personnel who supported the civilian research personnel made it possible to "observe" the magma chamber of the volcano which is located at a depth of 13-15 kilometers and of which the detail is not yet known geometry. The whole amount of data collected is destined to increase the possibilities of mitigating the seismic and volcanic risk in eastern Sicily.
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