Muon Tomography sites for Colombian volcanoes

ALEJANDRA VESGA; LUIS NÚÑEZ; CHRISTIAN SARMIENTO CANO; DAVID SIERRA; HERNAN ASOREY

ANNALS OF GEOPHYSICS

EDITRICE COMPOSITORI BOLOGNA

Lugar: Bologna; Año: 2020

1593-5213

By using a very detailed simulation scheme, we have calculated the cosmic raybackground flux at 13 active Colombian volcanoes and developed a methodology toidentify the most convenient places for a muon telescope to study their innerstructure.Our simulation scheme considers three critical factors with different spatialand time scales: the geomagnetic effects, the development of extensive airshowers in the atmosphere, and the detector response at ground level. The muonenergy dissipation along the path crossing the geological structure is modeledconsidering the losses due to ionization, and also contributions from radiativeBremstrahlung, nuclear interactions, and pair production.By considering each particular volcano topography and assuming reasonablestatistics for different instrument acceptances, we obtained the muon fluxcrossing each structure and estimated the exposure time for our hybrid muontelescope at several points around each geological edifice. After a detailedstudy from the topography, we have identified the best volcano to be studied,spotted the finest points to place a muon telescope and estimated its timeexposures for a significant statistics of muon flux.We have devised a mix of technical and logistic criteria --the ``rule ofthumb´´ criteria-- and found that only Cerro Machin, located at the CordilleraCentral (4∘29´N 75∘22´W), can be feasibly studied todaythrough muography. Cerro Negro and Chiles could be good candidates shortly