1,721,171 research outputs found

    Low entalpy geothermal suitability of North Sardinia (Italy)

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    Heat flow density over Sardinia is relatively high. Tertiary geodynamics and radiogenic heating from the Variscan batholith are the possible concurrent causes. Major anomalies were thought confined to the Tertiary basins, where 180 mW/m2 are reported. New data ascertain that the occurrence of the hottest thermal springs does not mirror these basins, as they pour out from Variscan granites. Hence the high thermal flow from the basins can result from basin-wide heat redistribution by hot "granite" water flowing laterally in shallow aquifers. This scenario is particularly favourable for low-medium enthalpy fluids exploitation as well as for geoexchange

    The Sardic Phase: field evidence of Ordovician tectonics in SE Sardinia, Italy

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    Detailed geological mapping, field observations and structural analyses demonstrate that Early Ordovician ('Sardic') deformation occurred in the early Palaeozoic successions that are now incorporated in the Variscan Nappe zone of SE Sardinia. This deformation is represented by folds that formed at a shallow depth, lack a significant syn-folding axial planar foliation, and do not affect the overlying Late Ordovician - Devonian sedimentary sequence. These deformation features can be related to the development of the Sardic Unconformity and to calc-alkaline volcanism in several now-scattered terranes of Ordovician northern Gondwana. This reflects a convergent geodynamic setting that in the study sector appears to have failed to reach a continental collisional end-stage. Associating the structural data from this study with those of several published research studies, a preliminary evaluation about which tectonic setting could better fit is proposed. These conditions affected the eastern side of the northern Gondwana margin more or less contemporaneously with the opening of the Rheic Ocean and the closure of the Qaidam Ocean, before the amalgamation of the Hunia terranes

    Foreland- and hinterland-verging structures in fold-and-thrust belt: an example from the Variscan foreland of Sardinia

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    In the Variscan foreland of SW-Sardinia (Western Mediterranean sea), close to the leading edge of the nappe zone, nappe emplacement caused folding and repetition of stratigraphic successions, km-scale offset of stratigraphic boundaries and an extensive brittle-ductile shear zone. Thrusts assumed a significant role, accommodating a progressive change of shortening direction and forming complicated thrust triangle zones. During thrust emplacement of the nappes, strong penetrative deformation affected rocks beneath the basal thrust of the nappe stack and produced coeval structures with both foreland-directed and hinterland-directed (backthrusting) shear sense. Crosscutting and overprinting relationships clearly show that the shortening direction changed progressively from N–S to E– W, producing in sequence: (1) E–W trending open folds contemporaneous with early nappe emplacement in the nearby nappe zone; (2) recumbent, quasi-isoclinal folds with axial plane foliation and widespread, ‘‘top-towardsthe- SW’’, penetrative shearing; (3) N–S trending folds with axial plane foliation, contemporaneous with late nappe emplacement; (4) backthrusts and related asymmetrical folds developed during the final stages of shortening, postdating foreland-verging structures. Structures at (3) and (4) occurred during the same tectonic transport ‘‘toptowards- the-E’’ of the nappe zone over the foreland. The several generations of folds, thrusts, and foliations with different orientations developed, result in a complex finite structural architecture, not completely explicable by the theoretical model proposed up to date
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