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

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.

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