Einstein Telescope candidates discuss shared criteria for subsurface research

Which measurement methods do we use to determine whether the subsurface is suitable for the Einstein Telescope, and with which criteria do we compare the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, Sardinia and perhaps Lusatia? These questions were the focus of the third meeting of the Site Preparation Board for the Einstein Telescope in Amsterdam.

Results of drilling campaigns in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR) and Sardinia, underground water flows, experience with soil noise at the existing gravity wave detectors KAGRA (Japan) and Virgo (Italy), the effect of magnetic fields and screening the soil with resistivity measurements: on 6 and 7 December, geologists and geophysicists had their fill at Nikhef in Amsterdam. There, the third meeting of the European Site Preparation Board (SPB) for the Einstein Telescope took place.

The SPB is an initiative of the European partnership of 1,500 scientists for the Einstein Telescope. Through the SPB, this partnership works out the requirements, which the future site of the Einstein Telescope has to meet. One such possible site is the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, where the ET-EMR project office is working on a so-called bid book for our region’s candidacy for the Einstein Telescope.

At the SPB meeting, it was not only about ground surveys in the candidate sites for the underground Einstein Telescope, but also about shared measurement standards.

Wim Walk, co-chair of the meeting and coordinator of soil studies in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion: “All kinds of subsurface studies have been done in the EMR, in Sardinia and at the possible candidate site in Lusatia, Germany. Now we are addressing the question: how are we going to compare those studies? This is about shared measurement standards-this is how a seismic study has to comply, this is how you present the results. Then we can properly compare the subsurface of the different sites.”

Scientific director Stan Bentvelsen of the Einstein Telescope project office in the EMR also looks back on the meeting in Amsterdam with satisfaction. “That there will now be a guideline to objectively compare Einstein Telescope sites is an important step forward. We are also working on other important aspects of our Bid Book, such as environment, environment and the close-knit network of knowledge institutions and companies in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion. I look forward to that overall picture.”