ENHANCEMENTS OF SEAFLOOR OBSERVATORIES AND APPLICATIONS FOR NATURAL HAZARD ASSESSMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

MONSOON is a PO FESR project (European Funds for Social Development) funded by "Regione Siciliana" (industrial call). The project develops in the mainframe of the wide range of scientific and technological activities work out by European Research Infrastructure EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory, www.emso-eu.org; Italiano F, 2013, 2014). The final target of the MONSOON project is to build up a prototype of a new generation of seafloor observatory for which specific echnological developments in terms of power consumption reduction, new data logger and new sensors have been planned. The research agreement between INGV and SMRU-Seismic Monitoring and Research Unit aimed of studying technical solutions for the detection of volume waves in the underwater environment including water and sediments with particular reference to the development of a submarine sensor. The technical features of the seafloor observatory makes it a useful tool for continuous monitoring of seismicity, volcanic activities and environmental parameters. The Panarea test site provides an easy access to a shallow hydrothermal system with high temperatures, low pH and high electrical conductivity. In this hostile environment the materials of the observatory as well as of the probes and the electronic components are tested in terms of resistence.