Development of MRPC detector for the purpose of volcano tomography.

Monitoring volcanic activity is a continuous concern in Japan due to the numerous active volcanoes around the country. To aid in this, special attention has been given to multi-gap resistive plate chambers (MRPC) by the LEPS-2 experimental group at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics. The hope is to continue the development of special MRPCs to utilize cosmic ray muons and their trajectory through the Earth's surface for this purpose. By using these MRPCs, which act as a time-of-flight sensor, the presence of different materials such as soil, water, or lava can be detected and therefore indicate the state of the activity inside the volcano. However, these MRPCs currently use freon (134a) gas to complete their purpose, so more strides are being taken to either find gas alternatives or to create a more sealed chamber to prevent gas leakage into the environment.