Possible application of a compact electronics for multilayer muon high-speed radiography to volcanic cones

A compact data taking electronics was developed for high-speed multi-layer muon radiography in order to minimize the operation failure rate. By requesting a linear trajectory within the number of redundant position sensitive detectors (PSDs), the background (BG) events produced by vertical electromagnetic (EM) showers are effectively reduced. In order to confirm the feasibility of this method, the system comprising 4 PSD layers were tested by imaging the internal structure of a parasitic cone and the adjacent craterlets formed in the 1910 eruption at the base of Usu volcano, Hokkaido with a conventional (MURG08) readout system (Kusagaya et al., 2012; Tanaka et al., 2012). The new mountain has been believed to be a cryptodome since its formation. According As knowledge on lava domes is are accumulated at various volcanoes, the definition of "cryptodome" is now doubted in its validity. The results of the preliminary 290-h muon radiographic survey revealed that the "cryptodome" is not underlain by any lava mass and that a main craterlet is accompanied by magma intrusions at shallow depths. The former verifies that the new mountain is not a cryptodome but a volcanogenetic mound, and the latter interprets the phreatic explosions forming the craterlets as intrusions of magma into the aquifer. However, a higher data taking failure rate was observed with a software-based MURG08 system when the size of the active area of the detection system was enlarged to improve the detection ability of the system. The newly developed MURG12 is a complete hardware-based electronics system that can simultaneously process signals from 192 scintillation counters of data size of 600 kbps ch 1 without operation failure. We anticipate that the observation speed would be further improved by employing MURG12. At the base of Usu volcano, in 20th century, four eruptions occurred. Some of them demonstrated three characteristic magma intrusions. First, a magma branch remained at a depth leaving an upheaval of the ground, second, it rose and reached aquifers causing phreatic explosions but not extruded, and third, it reacted with aquifers causing phreatic explosions and further extruded over the ground forming a lava dome. In order to clarify the eruption mechanism of Usu, it is necessary for us to image many parasitic cones. Based on the result of the test measurement, we anticipate that MURG12 would be a strong tool for high-speed muon radiography.