Uranium groundwater anomalies and active normal faulting

The ability to predict earthquakes is one of the greatest challenges for Earth Sciences. Radon has been suggested as one possible precursor, and its groundwater anomalies associated with earthquakes and water-rock interactions were proposed in several seismogenic areas worldwide as due to possible transport of radon through microfractures, or due to crustal gas fluxes along active faults. However, the use of radon as a possible earthquake's precursor is not clearly linked to crustal deformation. It is shown in this paper that uranium groundwater anomalies, which were observed in cataclastic rocks crossing the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory, can be used as a possible strain meter in domains where continental lithosphere is subducted. Measurements evidence clear, sharp anomalies from July, 2008 to the end of March, 2009, related to a preparation phase of the seismic swarm, which occurred near L'Aquila, Italy, from October, 2008 to April, 2009. On April 6th, 2009 an earthquake (M(w) = 6.3) occurred at 01:33 UT in the same area, with normal faulting on a NW-SE oriented structure about 15 km long, dipping toward SW. In the framework of the geophysical and geochemical models of the area, these measurements indicate that uranium may be used as a possible strain meter in extensional tectonic settings similar to those where the L'Aquila earthquake occurred

Status of Marine Biodiversity in the Anthropocene

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Results of CUORE-0 and prospects for the CUORE experiment

The CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment is an array of 741 kg of TeO2bolometers to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (ββ0ν) of130Te. The detector is being constructed at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy) where it will start operation in 2015. To test and demonstrate the possibility of realising such a large scale bolometric detector, a prototype (CUORE-0) has been realised. The CUORE-0 detector is a single tower of 52 CUORE-like bolometers. CUORE-0 data taking started in Spring 2013. The status of CUORE and the first CUORE-0 data are here reported

First Results from CUORE: A Search for Lepton Number Violation via 0νββ Decay of ^{130}Te.

The CUORE experiment, a ton-scale cryogenic bolometer array, recently began operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The array represents a significant advancement in this technology, and in this work we apply it for the first time to a high-sensitivity search for a lepton-number-violating process: ^{130}Te neutrinoless double-beta decay. Examining a total TeO_{2} exposure of 86.3 kg yr, characterized by an effective energy resolution of (7.7±0.5)  keV FWHM and a background in the region of interest of (0.014±0.002)  counts/(keV kg yr), we find no evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Including systematic uncertainties, we place a lower limit on the decay half-life of T_{1/2}^{0ν}(^{130}Te)>1.3×10^{25}  yr (90% C.L.); the median statistical sensitivity of this search is 7.0×10^{24}  yr. Combining this result with those of two earlier experiments, Cuoricino and CUORE-0, we find T_{1/2}^{0ν}(^{130}Te)>1.5×10^{25}  yr (90% C.L.), which is the most stringent limit to date on this decay. Interpreting this result as a limit on the effective Majorana neutrino mass, we find m_{ββ}<(110-520)  meV, where the range reflects the nuclear matrix element estimates employed