Search results for " geomorfologia"
showing 10 items of 284 documents
The Santa Ninfa Cave (Belice Valley): hydrogeochemical features and relationships with neotectonics
2020
The Santa Ninfa Cave (SNC) develops in an outcrop of Messinian gypsum, located in the heart of the zone struck by the 1968 seismic sequence of the Belice valley. It is composed of different levels of sub-horizontal galleries, the lowest of which is characterized by perennial flowing water, running along the water table. From the hydrogeological point of view, it configures as an open circuit, both inflowing and outflowing from/to neighboring aquifers. The geochemical facies of groundwater collected in the SNC is compatible with a meteoric recharge chemically interacting with evaporitic deposits. The most relevant geochemical feature is the mixing between a small tributary of sulfur water wi…
Rockfall hazards of Mount Pellegrino area (Sicily, Southern Italy)
2020
A map derived by rockfall analysis at Mount Pellegrino is presented herein. The study area is affected by several phenomena of rockfall which caused numerous damage and a strong social and economic impact. Official reports and maps that give a general assessment of rockfall hazard are available in this respect, however, it would be advisable to provide a more specific cartographic support useful for land management and planning. The drafting of new maps showing the rockfall runout areas is an additional tool that may be used in conjunction with the existing maps as a means of risk mitigation and reduction. On the basis of geological, geomorphological, and geomechanical analysis and exploiti…
Water resource assessment in karst and fractured aquifers of Termini Imerese-Trabia Mts. (Northern central Sicily, Italy).
2014
The carbonatic siliciclastic Mesozoic reliefs of Termini Imerese-Trabia Mts. (Northern central Sicily) were selected in order to investigate groundwater resources, as these fissured to karstic aquifers are used for potable water supply. These reliefs, part of the Sicilian Apennine Chain, consist of a tectonic units (deformed and emplaced during the Miocene-Pleistocene, and collapsed during the Plio-Pleistocene) mostly formed by clayey pelagic limestones (Sicilidi domain) overthrusting Meso-Cenozoic carbonate and silicoclastic rocks (Imerese Basin, Late Triassic-Early Oligocene) and terrigenous covers (Numidian Flysch, Late Oligocene-Early Miocene). The evolution of karstic network and subsu…
The Coastal Sulfuric Acid Cave System of Santa Cesarea Terme (Southern Italy)
2017
Santa Cesarea Terme in Salento is the only area in which hypogenic caves have been recognized in the Apulia region. In this spa area, the rising of sulfidic thermal waters that mix with both recent fresh infiltration waters and coastal salt water has formed four active sulfuric acid speleogenesis (SAS) caves. These caves are characterized by the typical set of sulfuric acid meso- and micromorphologies, and also by the presence of both gypsum and native sulfur. In all caves, biofilms are visible in the sulfidic thermal waters and on the cave walls.
Testing GIS-morphometric analysis of some Sicilian badlands
2014
Abstract Calanchi badlands are erosion landforms characterized by areas with scarce or absent vegetation, steep slopes, knife-edge divides and high erosion rates. They are originated by a combination of morphogenetic processes, partly similar to those shaping bigger fluvial landforms, and therefore can be considered as field “laboratories.” This paper presents the results of an investigation carried out in two badland sites located in Sicily, where the geometry of 25 calanchi has been characterized using Digital Elevation Models having a mesh size equal to 2 m. For each landform, a power length–volume relationship is established. This relationship demonstrates that length of calanchi channe…
A new empirical model for estimating calanchi Erosion in Sicily, Italy
2015
Abstract Calanchi (plural of calanco) are typical badland landforms of the Italian landscape. They consist of dense networks of V-shaped valleys, with a sparse or absent vegetation cover, which frequently develop on unconsolidated or poorly consolidated clayey deposits. In this paper, the dimensional analysis and the incomplete self-similarity theory were used to deduce a model relating the volume of sediments eroded from the calanchi area to a set of geometric attributes of their tributary areas. The morphometric characteristics of 209 calanchi basins were used to calibrate and validate the model. The predictive skill of the model was assessed by calculating the mean square error and the N…
Vertical movements in NE Sicily and its offshore: Outcome of tectonic uplift during the last 125 ky
2013
New data in the coastal area between Acquedolci and Patti (northeastern Sicily, Italy) have been collected to calculate vertical tectonic rates in a key sector between the Kabilian-Calabrian and the Sicilian-Maghrebian chain. The comparison among marine geology data (multibeam and seismic reflection profiles) on the continental shelf-slope system and the radiocarbon ages on geomorphological markers collected during a coastal survey, provided new stratigraphic, geomorphological and biological data, contributing to the knowledge of the geological evolution of this sector for the last 125 ky.This coastal area is framed between two main structural features active during the Pleistocene in north…
Examples of anthropogenic sinkholes in Sicily and comparison with similar phenomena in southern Italy
2013
A sinkhole, occurred in June 2011 and related to an underground quarry in the eastern sector of Marsala, is described in this paper as a case study (Figure 2). The site was selected for the availability of topographic data of the underground quarry, prior to the formation of the Abstract Anthropogenic sinkholes affect several built-up areas of Sicily (southern Italy) representing a great risk to people, buildings, and infrastructures. These phenomena are generally associated with the presence of ancient underground quarries for the extraction of calcarenite rock, used for building or ornamental materials. These quarries were poorly constructed and abandoned throughout history.
Pantelleria island (Strait of Sicily): volcanic history and geomorphological landscape
2017
Pantelleria is a volcanic island located in the Strait of Sicily, 95 km far from the Sicilian coastline and 67 km from Cape Bon (Tunisia). The volcanological history of the island begins approximately 324 ka BP and the last eruptive event was a submarine eruption that occurred on 1891 A.D. Eruptive activity was characterized by seven very intense explosive events, the latest being the Green Tuff (44 ka). They have all produced ignimbrite sheets that covered large sectors of the island. The landscape of the island mirrors the variety of the eruptive styles and their interplay with volcano-tectonics. The most evident geomorphological features are represented by: (i) the mantle-like distributi…
Forward logistic regression for earth-flow landslide susceptibility assessment in the Platani river basin (southern Sicily, Italy)
2013
Forward logistic regression has allowed us to derive an earth-flow susceptibility model for the Tumarrano river basin, which was defined by modeling the statistical relationships between an archive of 760 events and a set of 20 predictors. For each landslide in the inventory, a landslide identification point (LIP) was automatically produced as corresponding to the highest point along the boundary of the landslide polygons, and unstable conditions were assigned to cells at a distance up to 8 m. An equal number of stable cells (out of landslides) was then randomly extracted and appended to the LIPs to prepare the dataset for logistic regression. A model building strategy was applied to enlarg…