2021, Articolo in rivista, ENG
Heller Pearlshtien D.; Pignatti S.; Greisman-Ran U.; Ben-Dor E.
The Italian Space Agency (ASI)'s PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa (PRISMA) hyperspectral remote sensing (HSR) satellite was launched on 22 March 2019. This spectral imaging sensor, with 238 bands across the 400-2500 nm range and 30-m spatial resolution, can advance remote-sensing studies for vast applications worldwide. The present study evaluates the capability of the sensor's L1 (Top-of the- atmosphere TOA radiance) and L2D (reflectance) products for mapping minerals and geology in Makhtesh Ramon (MR), a national park in southern Israel that covers approximately 200 km2. The exceptional geological features in this area, with hardly any vegetation and mostly clear skies year-round, make it an ideal site for remote-sensing studies in general and HSR studies in particular. The quality of the PRISMA sensor's technical and thematic performance was assessed by examining its radiometry and spectral products against a highly calibrated airborne HSR sensor (AisaFENIX 1K; 420 spectral bands, range 375-2500 nm, 1.5-m spatial resolution). Airborne and field data acquisition captured the entire MR area, followed by comprehensive fieldwork with a portable ASD FieldSpec spectrometer (400-2500 nm spectral range). The PRISMA sensor's radiance performance was evaluated by examining the top of the atmosphere radiance product against simulated radiance using the MODTRAN® radiative transfer code. The simulated radiance used in-situ ground reflectance measurements in several locations across MR. The L1 and L2D products presented fair results with some outliers for PRISMA's L2D SWIR 2 long-wavelength region. The L2D product was further studied to map mineral occurrences and demonstrated promising results compared to MR's well-known geology and mineral distribution, and it was highly correlated to the high-spatial-resolution spectral mapping generated by the AisaFENIX 1K airborne sensor. Based on these results, we successfully mapped different types of minerals, such as iron oxides in the VNIR, gypsum in SWIR 1, and clay in SWIR 2. The PRISMA data's reflectance interference across the longer wavelengths of SWIR 2 did not permit fine mapping for carbonates, probably because of the L2D's poor performance in this spectral range. The quantitative performance of PRISMA's mineral mapping was judged relative to the quantitative products of the AisaFENIX 1K sensor for these same minerals, revealing about 80% accuracy for PRISMA's products.
2021, Articolo in rivista, ENG
Mondati G.; Spadi M.; Gliozzi E.; Cosentino D.; Cifelli F.; Cavinato G.P.; Tallini M.; Mattei M.
We present the geological map of the north-eastern margin of the Fucino Basin, which is mainly characterized by Plio-Quaternary continental deposits that show transition from deeper-water lacustrine environment, marginal lacustrine system, and fluvial facies. These deposits unconformably overlie upper Messinian Lago-Mare sediments and pre-orogenic carbonate succession. The occurrence of Caspiocypris tiberina in the Plio-Quaternary lacustrine sediments, coupled with the normal magnetic polarity of Casa Colombaia section, led to suggest the onset of the sedimentation of these continental deposits to the late Piacenzian (2.58-3.04 Ma). The upper Messinian deposits are characterized by ostracod assemblages related to the Loxocorniculina djafarovi zone, pointing to the last Lago-Mare event of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.40-5.33 Ma). This new stratigraphic framework may be useful to refine the long-term slip rates of the still active normal faults that affect the north-eastern margin of the Fucino Basin.
2020, Articolo in rivista, ENG
Aiello Gemma
Quaternary marine deposits of the Ischia island have been analyzed based on marine geological survey and sedimentological data. The Ischia island represents the emerged part of a large volcanic field, extending from the Procida island to the submerged volcanoes of the western Ischia offshore. The volcanic field develops over an area of about 42 km2, E-W trending, composed of calderas, such as the Ischia caldera, linked to the great explosive eruptions, plinian and ignimbritic ("Sintema del Rifugio di S. Nicola"). The grain-size analyses of sea bottom samples have evidenced the occurrence of gravelly sands, sands, silty sands, muddy sands, sandy silts and silts. The comparison of the obtained results with previous sedimentological data collected in the Ischia offshore, coupled with the construction of marine geological maps at the 1:10.000 scale has shown that the sands seem to prevail in the eastern Ischia offshore, while the gravelly sands, mainly bioclastic are located at the top of relict volcanic edifices, such as the Forio Bank (western Ischia offshore) and the Ischia Bank (south-eastern Ischia offshore). Moreover, the obtained data have evidenced the occurrence of rhodolith beds on the relict volcanic edifice of the Ischia Bank and the on the related parasitic vent and in the Ischia Channel, a morphological saddle located between the Ischia and Procida islands.
2017, Articolo in rivista, ENG
Piana F.[1], Lombardo V.[2], Mimmo D.[3], Mulazzano E.[1], Barale L.[1], D'Atri A.[4], Irace A.[1], Morelli M.[5], Mosca P.[1], Tallone S.[1]
The Geodatabase of the Piemonte Geological Map was designed in a way suitable for linking the geological knowledge of the geological domain at hand to more general levels of knowledge represented in some Earth science ontologies and namely in a dedicated ontology (OntoGeonous). The paper describes how the two different knowledge levels are assimilated in the GeoPiemonte informative system, providing relations between the contents of the geodatabase and the encoded concepts of the reference ontologies.
2016, Contributo in volume, ENG
Gemma Aiello Ennio Marsella
The geological evolution of coastal and marine environments offshore the Cilento Promontory through marine geological mapping is discussed here. The marine geological map n. 502 "Agropoli," located offshore the Cilento Promontory (southern Italy), is described and put in regional geologic setting. The study area covers water depths ranging between 30 and 200 m isobaths. The geologic map has been constructed in the frame of a research program financed by the National Geological Survey of Italy (CARG Project), finalized to the construction of an up-to-date cartography of the Campania region. Geological and geophysical data on the continental shelf and slope offshore the southern Campania region have been acquired in an area bounded northward by the Gulf of Salerno and southward by the Gulf of Policastro. A high-resolution multibeam bathymetry has permitted the construction of a digital elevation model (DEM). Sidescan sonar profiles have also been collected and interpreted, and their merging with bathymetric data has allowed for the realization of the base for the marine geologic cartography. The calibration of geophysical data has been attempted through sea-bottom samples. The morpho-structures and the seismic sequences overlying the outcrops of acoustic basement reported in the cartographic representation have been studied in detail using single-channel seismics. The interpretation of seismic profiles has been a support for the reconstruction of the stratigraphic and structural setting of the Quaternary continental shelf successions and the outcrops of rocky acoustic basement in correspondence to the Licosa Cape morphostructural high. These areas result from the seaward prolongation of the stratigraphic and structural units, widely cropping out in the surrounding emerged sector of the Cilento Promontory. The cartographic approach is based on the recognition of laterally coeval depositional systems, interpreted in the frame of system tracts of the Late Quaternary depositional sequence.
2012, Articolo in rivista, ENG
LUCA MARTELLI (1), PAOLO BONCIO (2), MASSIMO BAGLIONE (3), GIUSEPPE CAVUOTO (4), MARCO MANCINI (4), GABRIELE SCARASCIA MUGNOZZA (5) & MARCO TALLINI (6)
The analysis of the damage following the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake clearly indicates a strict control of the local geological conditions over the distribution of the effects. This paper briefly illustrates some of the most significant cases of local effects that have been observed and analysed during the seismic microzoning project promoted by the Italian Civil Protection Department. The observed local effects span over a wide range of typologies, such as classical 1D stratigraphic amplifications within wide extensional basins filled by Quaternary continental deposits, 2D amplifications within basins with horst-and-graben geometry of the bedrock, jointed rock-mass amplification and topographic amplification, though the latter was rarely observed. The paper also focuses on the meaning and significance in terms of site response of the geologic bedrock, which is formed by marine Meso-Cenozoic rocks underlying the Quaternary continental cover in the L'Aquila area, as well as the role of stiff rock bodies within the Quaternary continental succession behaving as a seismic bedrock. A certain number of slope and ground failure cases are also reported, prevailingly falls/topples with rolling and bouncing blocks and cave collapses, as well as co-seismic surface faulting cases. This latter aspect is discussed in the light of the lack of specific recommendations about surface fault-rupture hazard in the Italian regulations for building design in seismic areas.
2011, Articolo in rivista, ENG
Vittori, E.a, di Manna, P.a, Blumetti, A.M.a, Comerci, V.a, Guerrieri, L.a, Esposito, E.a, Michetti, A.M.b, Porfido, S.a, Piccardi, L.c, Roberts, G.P.d, Berlusconi, A.b, Livio, F.b, Sileo, G.b, Wilkinson, M.e, McCaffrey, K.J.W.e, Phillips, R.J.f, Cowie, P.A.g
This paper documents evidence of surface faulting associated with the 6 April 2009 moderate-sized earthquake (M L 5.8, M w 6.3) in the central Apennines of Italy, which caused major damage to the town of L'Aquila and its surroundings. Coseismic surface ruptures were mapped for a minimum distance of 2.6 km along the Paganica fault, a fault still poorly investigated relative to the other active faults nearby, which bound much wider range fronts. Surface rupture length (SRL) and maximum displacement parameters (2.6 km minimum and 10-15 cm, respectively) are in agreement with what is expected for an M w 6.3 event in the Italian Apennines tectonic environment. Different viewpoints exist on the amount of SRL and the number of activated faults. We propose a pattern of sympathetic and secondary slip on an array of faults around the master seismogenic structure. Past seismicity and evidence for larger Holocene offsets on this and other capable faults nearby prove that the 2009 event is not a good reference event for assessing the seismic hazard of the region. Nevertheless, the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake once more confirmed the importance of detailed geological studies for a proper seismic hazard assessment, and it clearly illustrates the need to pay attention to moderate events and supposedly minor active faults. Indeed, this type of earthquake is rather frequent in the whole Mediterranean region and is potentially much more destructive than in the past, due to the expanding urban centers and infrastructures inside their epicentral regions and even right above the traces of capable faults.
2011, Contributo in volume, ENG
Budillon F.; Aiello G.; Conforti A.; D'Argenio B.; Ferraro L.; Marsella E.; Monti L.; Pelosi N.; Tonielli R.
Extensive high-resolution mapping of the continental margin off the southern Campania region (eastern Tyrrhenian Sea) has revealed significant morphological and geological features which allowed us to outline the gradual modification of the coastal domains since the Late Pleistocene. Swath bathymetry, acoustic images of the seafloor, seismic acquisition, core and bottom samples were used to implement a large database. Shore bodies ranging in age from pre- to post- last-glacial times have been identified in the uppermost 100 ms of the seismic stratigraphic record off the Sele and Bussento river mouths. The oldest bodies formed during the seaward retreat of the shoreline during the Late Pleistocene sea level drop. The peak of the retreat accounts for the growth of a shelf-margin, in the Salerno and Policastro Bays, and a mid-shelf, off Cilento, littoral body, at least 100 km long, during the last maximum lowstand phase. At that time, the River Sele flowed directly on the upper slope and formed a channel drainage system, still preserved between a depth of 180 and 500 m, due to density flows that have transferred sediment from the coastal area directly into the Salerno Valley, an intraslope basin of the Eastern Tyrrhenian Margin. The postglacial sea level rise caused the fast drowning of the shelf and a partial preservation of the transgressive deposits. However a prograding wedge 1.5 km long and about 10 ms thick, which lies above the transgressive surface (90/60 m below the present day sea level), could represent a trace of the Younger Dryas climatic event. The rapid shore progradation during the 12 ky B.P. cold event testifies the sensitivity of the Sele coastal system even to minor climatic oscillations.
2009, Cartografia, ITA/ENG
Cinque A. 1; Romano P. 1; Budillon F. 2; D'Argenio B. 2; Bellonia A.2; Caiazzo C.; Fabbrocini R. 1; Ferraro L. 2; Insinga D., 2; Rosskopf C. 3
Lo studio effettuato per la redazione della presente Carta Geologica in scala 1:50 000 ha previsto sia un rilevamento geologico in scala 1:10 000 che un'attenta analisi geomorfologica condotta sul campo, su foto aeree e su carte topografiche in scala 1:5 000 degli anni '80 (Carta Tecnica dell'Italia Meridionale; Cassa per il Mezzogiorno). Ciò è stato integrato dal riesame di circa trecento stratigrafie di sondaggio pre-esistenti (ad uso geotecnico e idrogeologico) e dallo studio di 11 carotaggi continui effettuati ad hoc; studio che ha previsto osservazioni sedimentologiche ed analisi micropaleontologiche e palinologiche volte a definire paleoambienti di sedimentazione e condizioni paleoclimatiche. Lo studio ha consentito di meglio definire l'estensione di unità già note, di riconoscere nuove unità stratigrafiche e di operare suddivisioni all'interno degli ampi accorpamenti formazionali presenti sui citati Fogli 1:100 000 della Carta Geologica d'Italia. Avendo meglio chiarito i rapporti geometrici e cronologici tra i vari terreni presenti ed aderendo alle normative del progetto CARG, le unità completamente formate e non ubiquitarie sono state organizzate secondo i criteri delle UBSU. Esse appartengono tutte all'ampio Bacino della Piana Sele-Golfo di Salerno; denominazione con la quale s'intende sia la omonima depressione peri-tirrenica (vedi capitolo II), sia i bacini fluviali che verso di essa convergono dai retrostanti rilievi appenninici. Nella depressione tettonica, le fasi di subsidenza hanno permesso l'accumulo di successioni quaternarie, spesse da centinaia a migliaia di metri, che sulla Piana alternano intervalli alluvionali, transizionali e litorali, mentre nel Golfo sono dominate da depositi marini.
2009, Articolo in rivista
Cerrina Feroni A.; Ellero A.; Lavorini G.; Manetti F.
No abstract available
2002, Monografia o trattato scientifico
CERRINA FERONI A. 1, OTTRIA G. 1, MARTINELLI P. 1, MARTELLI L. 2, CATANZARITI R. 1