A team of international experts with multidisciplinary expertise (seismology, geochemistry, microbiology, geology and geophysics) to monitor and study the Lusi hydrothermal mud eruption, Indonesia, within the European project LUSI LAB. For the first time, mud and gas sampling was carried out with a drone equipped with special instrumentation, designed and assembled in cooperation between Ingv and the University of Oslo
A "multifunction" drone from the New Technologies and Instruments Laboratory of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv) took off to explore for the first time one of the largest hydrothermal eruptions in the world in Indonesia, Lusi. The monitoring and study of the activity of the mud "volcano" (technically it is a hydrothermal system in a sedimentary basin), are part of the European project LUSI LAB, funded by the Center for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED) of the University of Oslo.
"Lusi is an exceptional natural laboratory," says researcher Adriano Mazzini of the University of Oslo, who has been studying the eruption since 2006 and is responsible for the LUSI LAB project. “It's still in operation today and continues to spew gas, mud and water. Its first eruption dates back to 2006 in the north east of the island of Java following a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. There are almost 7 km² of territory submerged in boiling mud and 50,000 people have been evacuated. In periods of maximum activity Lusi has come to erupt up to 180,000 m³ of mud per day and estimates of its longevity remain highly speculative".
The main objective of the project, to understand the internal structure of the "volcano" and the triggering mechanisms of the eruptions, through the use of a drone equipped with appropriate instrumentation capable of sampling not only gas, mud and polluting agents but also thermal photographs, filming in the visible and high definition video.
"The strength of the aircraft, remote controlled from the ground, is to reach where man cannot, thus allowing to explore extreme environments, otherwise inaccessible, and to collect a vast range of data useful for studying the geochemical mechanisms and reactions that characterize the sites erupting”, explains Giovanni Romeo, head of the New Technologies and Instruments Laboratory of Ingv.
Recently the Lusi-drone has been successfully tested, by sampling gas and mud, acquiring visible and thermal images and measuring concentrations of gas in the air thanks to a device, created by the CSP Innovation in ICT research center of Turin, capable of to measure and georeference different gaseous species. This technique has allowed the mapping of the concentrations of different gases in the area around Lusi. Further tests and measurements will be very important to complete a global estimate of the gases emitted by the crater.
“Lusi”, continues Romeo, “offers researchers the opportunity to study an eruptive phenomenon in evolution since its recent birth and to refine investigation methods to be used on the national territory”.
Link to video:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingv/16381833733/in/photostream/
Links to photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingv/17001787955/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingv/16815592959/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingv/16381693743/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingv/16815594179/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingv/17000901421/in/photostream/
Rome, April 2, 2015