Search results for "Evaporites"
showing 10 items of 13 documents
Soil development on sediments and evaporites of the Messinian crisis
2020
Abstract Vast areas in the Mediterranean are characterised by evaporite deposits of the Messinian crises (c. 6–5.3 Ma BP). During this period, large deposits were built up in shallow lagoon-like systems and are now found in southern Italy, Albania, Cyprus and Turkey. So far, soil formation on evaporites has been studied predominantly in subarid to arid environments. Although the formation of soils has received new significance, little is known about the evolutional trajectories on evaporites of the Mediterranean. We therefore studied soil formation in the Caltanissetta basin (Sicily) where evaporites are most widespread. The lithologies included the sequence: marine clay deposits, laminated…
Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations in Caves Protected as Nature Reserves and Related Gas Hazard
2022
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations can reach high levels inside natural caves, representing a hazardous condition for both humans frequenting the underground environment and its safeguard due to the corrosion of speleothems induced by the acidification of atmospheric moisture. These issues are particularly critical for the eco-sustainable management of caves protected as nature reserves and undergoing touristic exploitation. In this paper we present the results of the C6 project, which was activated in 1999 for the monitoring of air quality inside three caves protected as nature reserves in Sicily (Italy). Near-real-time and spot measurements of air temperature and CO2 concentration have been c…
Hydrogeological Behaviour and Geochemical Features of Waters in Evaporite-Bearing Low-Permeability Successions: A Case Study in Southern Sicily, Italy
2020
Knowledge about the hydrogeological behaviour of heterogeneous low-permeability media is an important tool when designing anthropogenic works (e.g., landfills) that could potentially have negative impacts on the environment and on people&rsquo
The onset of the Messinian salinity crisis: Insights from Cyprus sections.
2009
International audience
Weathering of evaporites: natural versus anthropogenic signature on the composition of river waters
2015
Weathering of evaporites strongly influences the chemistry of continental runoff, making surface waters poorly exploitable for civil uses. In south-central Sicily, this phenomenon is worsened by the occurrence of abandoned landfills of old sulphur and salt mines. The industrial evolution of the Bosco-S. Cataldo mining site leaved two landfills from the early exploitation of a sulphur mine followed by that of a kainite deposit. In particular, the weathering of these landfills leads the dissolved salt (TDS) values up to about 200 g l−1 in the Stincone–Salito Stream waters. This process induces the V, Cr and Fe desorption from sediments and particulates in the aqueous phase under reducing cond…
The Messian Salinity Crisis and the catastrophic Zanclean flooding of the dessicated Mediterranean: the Red Sea record
2013
Onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis: Sedimentological, petrographic and geochemical characterization of the pre-salt sediments from a new core (Ca…
2022
The present study aims to reconstruct the environmental changes leading to the Messinian Salinity Crisis during the transition from the Tortonian-Messinian marine conditions to the Messinian evaporitic environments. The core 3AGN2S04, recently drilled in the Caltanissetta Basin (Sicily), was analyzed to reveal the petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the late Tortonian – early Messinian pre-salt sediments. In particular, the facies characterization of the carbonates and organic-rich shales of the Calcare di Base (CdB) member allowed to understand its significance in the paleoenvironmental evolution towards salt deposition and to the reconstruct the brecciation proc…
Sea level and climate forcing of the Sr isotope composition of late Miocene Mediterranean marine basins
2014
Sr isotope records from marginal marine basins track the mixing between seawater and local continental runoff, potentially recording the effects of sea level, tectonic, and climate forcing in marine fossils and sediments. Our 110 new Sr-87/Sr-86 analyses on oyster and foraminifera samples from six late Miocene stratigraphic sections in southern Turkey, Crete, and Sicily show that Sr-87/Sr-86 fell below global seawater values in the basins several million years before the Messinian Salinity Crisis, coinciding with tectonic uplift and basin shallowing. 87Sr/86Sr from more centrally located basins (away from the Mediterranean coast) drop below global seawater values only during the Messinian S…
Ciminna, First Stop - 27 Thursday
2016
A description of the stratigraphic setting and tectonic evolution of the Late Neogene Ciminna basin (Northern Sicily)