A lot is known about the propagation of shear and compressional waves, of surface waves, and of sound, but in real-world applications we are often faced with a level of complexity that makes simple, analytical models inadequate.

How do the reverberations of seismic waves propagating through the heterogeneous crust of the earth conspire to form a “diffuse” wave field, which can be used in seismic “ambient noise” seismology? How do dolphins exploit their anatomy to very precisely locate targets with their biosonar? And can we learn from them, to locate and discriminate quakes and explosions with few seismic instruments? Besides seismic velocities, can we use seismic waves to constrain other features of the earth's interior, e.g. attenuation, and/or the amount of wave scattering that earth materials cause?

We address these and similar questions, in collaboration with physicists, acousticians and experts of numerical modeling.

Professors coordinating and developing projects related to this research pathway: Giorgio Cassiani, Jacopo Boaga, Lapo Boschi, Ilaria Barone, Piero Poli