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Geology of the Northern Simbruini Mts. (Abruzzo – Italy)
Full text linkThis paper presents the results of a geological mapping project across the northern portion of
the Simbruini Mts. (Latium-Abruzzi Domain – Central Apennines), where a thick Cretaceous and
Miocene carbonate succession, followed by a thick upper Miocene terrigenous foredeep
succession, is exposed. The terrigenous succession also includes a peculiar lithoclastic unit
(‘brecce della Renga fm.’), whose sedimentation is linked to pre-orogenic (TortonianMessinian) extensional tectonics. The study area experienced late Messinian-early Pliocene
compression, which is the Apennine chain building phase, followed by Quaternary postorogenic extension, related to the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin. A geological map, at
1:20,000 scale, illustrates the main stratigraphic and structural features of the area
Late Miocene extension in the Central Apennines: Field evidence from the Simbruini Mts
No full text[No abstract available
The First World War of Italian geologists. Between patriotic interventionism and objective pragmatism
No full textScientific studies dealing with the intimate relationship between
geology and First World War appeared in Italy already during the
conflict, or in the first decade after the end of hostilities. In this note we
have focused on two leading Italian geologists, Enrico Fossa-Mancini
and Federico Sacco which dealt with the possible use and importance of
geology in military operations, from territorial defense, to detection of
optimal areas for large troop movements. Despite the similarity of the
subject, and the not excessive time interval between the scripts, the
works of the two authors show a dramatically different approach and
point of arrival. The analysis by Fossa-Mancini is more objective,
detached and pragmatic, being carried out with a ‘clear mind’ after the
end of the conflict. His study is polished and purposeful, identifying the
actions required in time of peace to ‘geologically’ prepare a nation to a
potential conflict. Differently, the analysis by Sacco does not take into
account the real situation highlighted by Fossa-Mancini (e.g. the
complete unpreparedness of the high Italians command in terms of
military use of geology), and uses his writing to exalt the primacy of the
Italian army in the consideration of geology in military conflicts. In
Sacco, geology and the study of the Italian natural territory it is expertly
used as a justification and reason for the war, which it is perceived by
the author as necessary, of liberation and redemption
La frammentazione della piattaforma carbonatica dei Monti Simbruini nel Miocene superiore
No full textGeological map of the northern Simbruini Mts. (Abruzzo - Italy)
No full textThis paper presents the results of a geological mapping project across the northern portion of the Simbruini Mts. (Latium-Abruzzi Domain – Central Apennines), where a thick Cretaceous and Miocene carbonate succession, followed by a thick upper Miocene terrigenous succession, is exposed. A geological map on the 1:20,000 scale illustrates the main stratigraphic and structural features of the area. A unique feature of the study area is the existence of a thick clastic unit, the “brecce della Renga fm.” produced by the dismantling of the margins of a wide pre-orogenic extensional structural high, which rose in the early Tortonian within the foredeep basin. Following the Apennine chain building phase, the area was subjected to post – orogenic Quaternary extension, related to the opening of the Tyrrhenian sea
Pop-up structure in massive carbonate-hosted fold-and-thrust belt. Insight from field mapping and 2D kinematic model in the central Apennines
No full textFold-and-thrust belts are characterized by the occurrence of foreland-verging thrusts and antithetic backthrust, which develop in the hangingwall of thrust sheets. Both thrust and backthrust bound the so-called pop-up structure, which is a deformed zone characterized by thrust- and backthrust-related anticlines. Pop-up structures mainly develop in fold-and-thrust belts characterized by a multilayered sedimentary sequence, consisting of limestones, marls, and shales, deformed above a weak décollement, such as evaporites. However, in this work,
we combine field mapping, stratigraphic constrains, and structural analysis with 2D kinematic forward modeling to document a pop-up structure developed within limestones/dolostones, deformed above a strong décollement consisting of dolostones, in the central Apennines, Italy. In particular, we describe a SW-verging anticline and a NE-verging anticline in the SW and NE margin of the Serra Lunga ridge, respectively. Such folds were generated by a NE-dipping backthrust and by SW-dipping forethrust, respectively. Therefore, we suggest that the Serra
Lunga ridge represents a pop-up structure, showing geometries similar to other pop-up structures observed within fold-and-thrust belts characterized by a multilayered sedimentary sequence. In addition, backlimb tilting of backthrust-related anticlines generates the forelandward-dipping monoclines, observed within thrust sheets in the Central Apennines and in several fold-and-thrust belts worldwide
Anatomy and Jurassic evolution of a Hercynian basement high (Caloveto High - Calabria, Southern Italy)
No full textThe Caloveto area in northeastern Calabria hosts a stratigraphic succession which documents the evolution from shallow water carbonates to deeper-water pelagic and hemipelagic deposits, bearing ample evidence for severe tectonic control on Jurassic and Early Cretaceous sedimentation. Geological mapping indicates that the shallow-water carbonates, also with coral assemblages, formed a narrow fringe around a high of the Hercynian basement, made of low- grade metamorphic rock, which remained emergent throughout the Pliensbachian and became an intrabasinal high of the Longobucco basin, hosting thin pelagic sedimentation during most of the Jurassic. An extensional phase in the Toarcian disrupted and foundered the benthic carbonate factory, whose drowning is documented by a change to Rosso Ammonitico-type deposits. This resulted in a complex network of neptunian dykes (also intruding the basement) and in- situ breccias. Starting in the late Toarcian, the rugged submarine topography was gradually leveled by onlapping marls, radiolarites and pelagic limestone, which sealed the Toarcian fault zones producing a diverse array of unconformities. Colonization by microbial communities characterizes the initial stages of marine sedimentation around the cores of Paleozoic basement, as banded polychrome microbialites and "swollen" phyllites, a result of the microbially- influenced/induced displacive growth of calcium carbonate crystals along split cleavage planes, constitute an unexpected field tool for identifying basin margins. Silicified marginal zones in the shallow water limestone characterize, analogous to other Tethyan regions, the onlap unconformities of chert-rich basinal units on the submerged carbonate fringes
A megaclastic basin-fill jurassic succession at Montagna dei Fiori (Abruzzo, Italy)
No full text[No abstract available
Alessandro Portis e l'elefante di Riofreddo (RM)
Full text linkNell’autunno del 1894 fu trovato uno scheletro
quasi intero di elefante nel comune di Riofreddo (RM) ai margini
della Piana del Cavaliere. I resti, sebbene in pessimo stato
di conservazione, furono studiati da Alessandro Portis che ne
determinò la specie. Oltre all’elefante, Portis studiò anche i resti
di ippopotamo, rinoceronte e un coprolite di carnivoro trovati
nell’area, che gli permisero di ricostruire un ambiente palustre
del ‘Pliocene superiore’ abitato da grandi mammiferi. Questi
ritrovamenti fecero ipotizzare a Portis la presenza di abbondanti
resti di grandi mammiferi nei corpi sedimentari affioranti
nell’area, spesso trovati accidentalmente e non segnalati in via
ufficiale. Oggi i sedimenti che hanno restituito l’elefante sono
attribuiti al Pleistocene inferiore-medio, e la moderna revisione
degli esemplari studiati da Portis ha permesso di attribuirli alle
specie Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus, Hippopotamus cf. antiquus,
Stephanorhinus etruscus, Pachycrocuta brevirostris
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