News

NEWTON-g Project Video Released

25 September 2019

A project video exploring the activities of KNMI R&DSA within the NEWTON-g project has been published.

Between 2018 and 2022, R&DSA is involved in the European H2020 NEWTON-g (new tools for terrain gravimetry) project concerning volcano gravimetry. Gravimetry describes the study of the strength of a gravitational field. Newton's law of gravitational attraction dictates that variations in the gravitational fields' strength are directly coupled to mass changes through time and space. Microgravimeters are sensitive instruments that can detect these minor fluctuations and provide a window into sub-surface processes.

NEWTON-g logo

Understanding geophysical phenomena using microgravimeters contributes to addressing important societal issues, including: sustainable management of energy resources (e.g., hydrocarbons and geothermal energy), management of water resources, and assessment of volcanic hazards.

In recent years, big leaps have been made in the development of low-cost, lightweight, and mass-producible gravimeters. In the framework of NEWTON-g an array of 30 instruments will be deployed on Mt. Etna, Sicily, set up to detect sub-surface mass movements inside the volcanic plumbing system with an unparalleled spatio-temporal resolution.

The project has released a promotional video that explains in 15 minutes how the inside of a volcano can be explored using microgravimetry. The video features the international team, including two R&DSA researchers: Elske de Zeeuw-van Dalfsen and Mathijs Koymans, who speak about their domains of expertise.

The project video can be viewed on the NEWTON-g homepage: http://www.newton-g.eu.