![]() ![]() and mainly consists of yellow tuff, a soft volcanic rock. It is a headland with a maximum altitude of about 60 m a.s.l. Echia (also called Pizzofalcone) is the site of the earliest settlement of the city of Naples in 8th century BC. Echia in ancient Naples 24 belong to this domain. The results obtained by the ScanPyramids project at the Khufu’s Pyramid 23 and by our group in exploring underground cavities at Mt. However, the problem of low fluxes does not affect a very wide range of applications (from archaeology to risk assessment and prevention in civil engineering or geology), where the thickness of matter being traversed is at most several tens of meters 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. Almost forty years later, muography was applied to the investigation of the inner structures of volcanic edifices 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, facing the challenge posed by the observation of the low muon fluxes surviving the traversal of a large rock thickness typical of this application. The first muography was performed by the Nobelist Louis Alvarez in 1970, who disproved the possible existence of a hidden burial chamber in Chefren’s Pyramid 1. Muography (or muon radiography) is thus in principle similar to X-ray radiography, but capable of probing the interior of large bodies, thanks to the penetrating power of muons which is much higher than that of X-rays. These could be cavities or high-density zones. As the penetration of muons in matter depends on its density, such a map can provide a muographic image of its internal structures. A comparison with the muon flux impinging on the Earth surface provides a map of the muon transmission (or equivalently absorption) in the traversal of the body being investigated. ![]() By tracking back the muon trajectories, one obtains an angular map of their flux as seen from the location of the muon tracker itself. ![]() In absorption muography, a muon tracker is located downstream of the body under investigation. A conspicuous flux of muons is constantly hitting the Earth surface from all directions, from the Zenith to almost horizontal, providing an abundant “light” source for muography. Muons are naturally produced in the interactions of cosmic rays with the Earth atmosphere. Muography is an imaging technique that profits from the penetrating power of elementary particles called muons, similar to electrons but with a mass about two hundred times larger. In all fields, imaging techniques capable of seeing inside physical bodies have brought an extraordinary progress to the power of investigation procedures. We demonstrate here that our original approach definitely enhances muography discovery potential, especially in case of complex underground systems. Echia, the site of the earliest settlement of the city of Naples in the 8th century BC, have led us to the discovery of a hidden underground cavity, whose existence was not evident with the usual two-dimensional muography graphs. We have developed a new approach to the three-dimensional muography of underground structures, capable of directly localising hidden cavities and of reconstructing their shape in space. The technological developments in the detection of elementary particles have opened the way to its application in various fields, such as archaeology, studies of geological structures, civil engineering and security issues. The measurement of their absorption in matter allows the imaging of the inner structure of large bodies. High energy muons are naturally produced in the interactions of cosmic rays with the Earth atmosphere. Muography (or muon radiography) is a technique that exploits the penetration capability of muons, elementary particles similar to electrons but with a mass about 200 times larger. ![]()
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