Speaker
Description
The LouMu collaboration was established between the Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics (LIP), the Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT) and the Ciência Viva Center of Lousal, to create the conditions for the use of muography as a novel method for subsurface geophysical surveys in Portugal, starting by an end-to-end test at the Lousal Mine. The exploitation of the Lousal Mine, located in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, ended in 1988 and it was then rehabilitated as the core of a science center. A 18 meter deep gallery was kept accessible, allowing the operation of a muon telescope. Detailed surveys of the gallery and surroundings were done to help establishing the muography targets and interpreting the first results. In April 2022 the muon telescope was installed at Lousal and soon obtained the image of the first geological target: the Corona fault crossing the gallery. The analysis proceeds with the development of the methods for translating these into local density maps and for combined inversion of muography with other datasets. The aim is not only to provide the best knowledge on Lousal, but also to prepare for other geophysical surveys.
