Team

Research at the Experimental Geophysical Laboratory (created in 1987) deals mainly the explosive dynamics of active Volcanoes, Infrasound Acoustics, Seismic and Tsunami risk.

The Laboratory has a permanent location in the Stromboli island at Semaforo San Vincenzo Vecchio. Since 2005, it is a Center of Competence of Italian Civil Defence and provides daily information on the level activity of Stromboli and Etna Volcanoes at Valutation and Risk Prevention Office of the Italian Civil Defence to their decision-making.

As a Center of Competence of Italian Civil Defence, the Laboratory has the task of developing geophysics methods for hostile environments monitoring. In this context, the Laboratory has designed and achieved the actual monitoring system and tsunami alert installed in Stromboli offshore.

The Experimental Geophysical Laboratory manages permanent monitoring systems installed on 6 actives Volcanoes in the world: Stromboli and Etna (Italy), Santorini (Greece), Montserrat (West Indies), Katla and Hekla (Iceland).

The monitoring systems are formed by different kind of geophysics sensors (Seismometer, Infrasound pressure, Thermocamera, Tiltmeter). Since 2010 it manages 3 infrasound arrays in the Alps for snow avalanche investigation and a large aperture array in Central Italy (Amiata) for the study of infrasound propagation in the atmosphere. All data are transmitted and elaborated in real-time in the Laboratory located in Firenze.

The laboratory is also interested in the assessment of the seismic site response using seismic measurements and modelling, in this field it collaborates with Civil Defence of Florence Province, Florence Municipality and Pistoia Province to realize ground amplification maps for seismic risk reduction.

After the 2009 Aquila earthquake, the Laboratory was involved by the National Seismic Service in the study of Seismic Microzoning for the “House Project” and “Seismic Microzoning for Reconstruction”.

The Laboratory extends his work also in Building Seismic Response, recently it has collaborated with the Ministero dei Beni Culturali and Opera del Duomo of Firenze to evaluate the Modal Shapes, frequencies and Damping for Accademy of Belle Arti of Firenze and Giotto’s tower bell of Firenze respectively.