WALKING THROUGHTHE DOWNTOGEOPHYSICALWN THE MUSEUM EARTH’S OF CORE ROC ANDCA DI ALBAN PAPA HILLS VOLCANO AT THEBETWEEN GEOPHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE MUSEUM AND OF ROC SCIENTIFICCA DI PAPA RESEARCH (ROME, ITALY) INGV Pagliuca Nicola Mauro, De Angelis Gloria,Pagliuca Forsinetti Nicola Rossella, Mauro¹ Gasparini and Calcagni Calvino , Emanuele²Gentilini Marco, Pietrangeli Donatella ¹ Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, [email protected] INGV Istituto Nazionale di Geoisica e Vulcanologia, 00143 Roma, Via di Vigna Murata , Italia, [email protected] ² Associazione Orizzonte Natura, [email protected]
The aim of the Geophysical Museum of Rocca di Papa (http://museoroccadipapa.ingv.it/) is to introduce the discovery of the Earth’s interior and to try to illustrate how man, in the course of time, has accumulated information that permitted him to hypothesise about the internal structure of the Earth.
The Museum explains to the visitors the main topics of Geophysics through the use of posters, movie presentations and interactive experiments and presents the stages of scientific research which led to the modern concept of the Earth internal model. The main focus of the scientific disciplines in the Museum has been school students of all ages: since the Museum opened the 26th October 2005, approximately five thousand people per year, such as local residents, students, and tourists have visited it. In addition to the recreational component of the modern structure of the Museum, it interacts with schools to promote programs on Earth sciences and the knowledge of Geophysics.
The Museum has an area of 300 square metres and Figure 1. The Geophysical Museum is closed to the ancient Figure 2. The panoramic terrace with meteorological It is possible to visit the museum through different routes as it its location was formerly the seat of the Geodynamic Colonna Fortress and it’s on the top of Rocca di Papa and station. has three floors so the visitor can begin by choosing any of overlooks the historic village centre. Observatory, built in 1886. The Museum was made them. In addition to this, we move on to the world of the natural possible, using the funds allocated by Regione Lazio, phenomena, as the scientists see it through experimental data thanks to an agreement between the Istituto recorded in real time and displayed through different monitors Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and the placed along the rooms. Town Council of Rocca di Papa, a small town located At the moment we are working on different stations in the only 25 km south east of Rome where the dozen museum: meteorological station (Fig. 2); seismic equipment towns within are collectively called Castelli Romani. connected to the National Seismic Centralized Network of INGV; This area is known as Alban Hills, a volcanic group a geodetic station for monitoring crustal deformation of the of hills within a vast crater the circumference of Alban Hills. which is more than 60 Km.
Figure 3. The octagonal room dedicated to seismology.
The Museum is a message launched to educate the public about the principles of sciences. It is also a well reasoned way to salvage a cultural patrimony, the old Geodynamic Observatory that ran the risk of being disregarded. Thanks to this journey, the public gets to know the instruments used in the past and present in studying the inner depths of the Earth. Seismology is the science that has given the best contribution to our study of the Eratht’s interior. This is the reason why it was decided to dedicate a special area of the Museum to this discipline. The octagonal room (Fig. 3), in the middle of the first floor, is used like an amphitheatre, for the projection of a movie, which shows what happens when an earthquake occurs.
Figure 4. The sketch map of museum, and the position of the figures shown in the text. They are all at the first floor. The restoration of the Geodynamic Observatory building, was necessary to make the Museum accessible to the public. The Museum is a message launched to educate the public about the principles of sciences. It is also a well reasoned way to salvage a cultural patrimony, the old Geodynamic Observatory that ran the risk of being disregarded. Thanks to this journey, the public gets to know the instruments used in the past and present in studying the inner depths of the Earth.
Figure 5. The phylosofical play game, which express the concepts of induction, deduction, intuition and fatih. Figure 8. The play called “measure the earthquake”.
Figure 3
The instruments and the games are exhibited without any protection so that the visitor can interact with them. In doing so, the visitor acquires a conscious feeling that a phenomenon is instead less unusual than he had originally believed. As an example, the earthquake is a phenomenon commonly considered unusual by anybody with little or no experience of Geophysics, occurs frequently all over the world. During the visit at the museum, people are able to connect to the web site of the INGV (www.ingv.it) or to the web site of international seismic networks, where they will discover what ordinary event earthquakes are in our life and how frequently they occur. The scientific development of modern methods currently being used to predict natural disasters are well represented in the different sections of the museum. Visitors can view book exhibits, ancient documents and other important tools. They can also play educational games designed to help them understand methods Figure 7. The play called “looking for the pole”, together Figure 6. The room of the seismologic instruments, in the scientists use to discover what the Earth's core is like. exhibits and others play games about rocks and foreground the two mechanical Wiechert’s seismographs geomagnetism. WHY THE ALBAN HILLS VOLCANO AT MUSEUM?
The Museum is located on the top of southernmost Quaternary volcano which the main activity took place between 600 and 400 ka years ago, during four main episodes (De Rita et al., 1988). Following this first cycle of explosions from a central cone, a wide caldera (12 by 10 km) formed at 400 ka years ago (Fornaseri, 1985). Subsequently, the activity began inside the caldera with the buildup of a smaller central cone that erupted both leucithytic lavas and pyroclastic flows. The final cycle of activity, ending about 27 ka years ago, was characterized by strong phreatomagmatic explosions from several craters located mainly on the western part of the volcano concluded that the phreatomagmatic explosions which produced crater-lakes of Nemi and Albano and the basin of Ariccia. The center of this large crater, the smaller crater of Monte Cavo (948 m. asl), is just some hundred meters far away from the Museum. The Museum is located on the top of southernmost Quaternary volcano which the main activity took place between 600 and 400 ka years ago, during four main episodes (De Rita et al., 1988). Following this first cycle of explosions from a central cone, a wide caldera (12 by 10 km) formed at 400 ka years ago (Fornaseri, 1985). Figure 9. The geologic plastic of the Alban Hills’ belt that shows the essential Subsequently, the activity began inside the caldera with the buildup of a smaller central cone that erupted both leucithytic lavas and pyroclastic flows. lines of stratigraphy. In addition to that, the students can make a little walk right The final cycle of activity, ending about 27 ka years ago, was characterized by strong phreatomagmatic explosions from several craters located mainly on on the panoramic point of Monte Cavo, where is possible to admire the the western part of the volcano concluded that the phreatomagmatic explosions which produced crater-lakes of Nemi and Albano and the basin of Ariccia. phreatomagmatic craters of Albano and Nemi lakes. The center of this large crater, the smaller crater of Monte Cavo (948 m. asl), is just some hundred meters far away from the Museum.
References Salvi S., S. Atzori, C. Tolomei, J. Allievi, A. Ferretti, C. Prati, F. Rocca, S. Stramondo and N. Feuillet (2004). Inflation rate of the Colli Albani volcanic complex retrieved by the Permanent Scatterers SAR interferometry technique, Geophysical Research Letters, 31, 12, L12606. De Rita, D., R. Funiciello, and M. Parotto (1988). Geological map of the Colli Albani volcanic complex ("Vulcano Laziale'), CNR, GNV, Joint Venture ENEL-AGIP. Fornaseri, M. (1985). Geochronology of volcanic rocks from Latium (Italy), Rend. Soc. It. Min. Petrol. 4, 73-106. Pagliuca N. M., Gasparini C., Pietrangeli D. (2007). Il Museo Geofisico di Rocca di Papa: tra divulgazione e ricerca scientifica. Annali di Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica dell'Università degli Studi di Ferrara, vol. 3, pp. 21-29.