Radiation measurements as tool for environmental and geophysics studies on volcano-tectonic areas

Abstract

In the last years there has been an increasing concern about natural- radioactivity measurements both from the point of view of the environmental survey, especially for the human health protection, and of the geophysical-events investiga- tion in volcanic areas and tectonic fault zones. We report on our activity in both these fields, in particular on the measurements of indoor radon concentration in a long-term passive monitoring in dwellings of the eastern region of Sicily. Because this region is characterized by high seismicity, besides the indoor radioactivity sur- vey, in-soil radon measurements in the region (both volcanic and tectonic area) can provide a better insight and a valuable database for the study related to radon anomalies. A synthesis is reported of the results that we obtained, in the last years, in the volcanic and tectonic area of oriental Sicily both from indoor monitoring and from geophysical-events investigation.