Scanning geophysical hazards

School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Granular physics, the study of how collections of macroscopic particles behave en masse, helps us to model geophysical hazards like snow avalanches and landslides. Before placing trust in any predictions, we need a complete picture of how opaque grains flow. X-ray technologies provide an unobtrusive means to see beyond the surface. Whereas classical tomography does not work for moving samples, new dynamic X-ray approaches can handle genuinely flowing regimes, offering fresh insight.