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Several Neogene-Quaternary basins in central-western Italy host travertine deposits and are influenced by extensional and strike-slip tectonic activity. These continental carbonate deposits are principally related to hydrothermal fluids circulating and emerging onto the surface along fractured carbonate bedrocks or discontinuities. The Acque Albule Basin (Tivoli, Central Italy) is a tectonically-controlled depression hosting the Pleistocene Lapis Tiburtinus travertine. The 3D modelling permits to reconstruct the geometry and architecture of the geobodies filling the sedimentary basin and its evolution. The reconstruction of the different surfaces bounding the travertine geobodies of the Lapis Tiburtinus highlights a complex scenario mainly characterized by depression and relief morphological elements, associated with subaqueous, palustrine, slope and channel depositional environments. The results obtained by the 3D modelling of the quarried area of the Lapis Tiburtinus travertine deposits and the spatial distribution of discontinuity surfaces and geobody architectures provide information on the factors influencing the sedimentary filling of the Acque Albule Basin. The presence of E-W oriented lens-shaped geometries laterally migrating reveals a drainage system persistent through time toward the southern part of the study area in the direction of the Aniene River, bordering the Acque Albule Basin in the South. The travertine deposits related to the Lapis Tiburtinus developed in an area of 28 km2 and accumulated in a system of sub-basins, each 1-2 km2 wide, mainly characterized by subaqueous conditions and interconnected by a hydrographic network related to the Aniene River. The results obtained reveal that tectonic activity was the main control on the evolution of the Acque Albule Basin over a time-scale of hundreds of thousands to million years, influencing the basinal subsidence through time and the locations of active hydrothermal springs precipitating the travertine. However, climatic changes govern rainfall precipitation rates and groundwater level affecting spring discharge and travertine deposition rate. Glacio-eustatic oscillations linked to the climatic fluctuations of the last 115 kyrs controlling the Aniene River base level have influenced the depositional setting and the geometry and architecture of travertine geobodies.

SGI 2021

Climatic and sea-level changes control travertine deposition: the Lapis Tiburtinus case study (Tivoli, Central Italy)

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L'Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale - OGS e il Dipartimento di Matematica e Geoscienze dell'Università di Trieste sono orgogliosi di ospitare il 90° Congresso della Società Geologica Italiana a Trieste dal 14 al 16 settembre 2021. La modalità del congresso è interamente online.

Con il motto "Geologia senza frontiere" questo evento mira a promuovere le Scienze della Terra come disciplina scientifica proiettata nel futuro, oltre i confini geografici, politici e disciplinari, per comprendere meglio l'interno del Pianeta Terra e la struttura del sottosuolo, difendere la società da pericolosi eventi geologici, comprendere meglio la variabilità climatica, pianificare l'utilizzo delle georisorse in modo etico e nel rispetto dell'ambiente.


**Please note, times listed in the SCHEDULE tab (calendar icon) reflect YOUR LOCAL TIME ZONE. The main timezone for this conference will be Central European Summer Time.**

The National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics - OGS and the Department of Mathematics and Geosciences of the University of Trieste are proud to host the 90th Congress of the Italian Geological Society in Trieste on 14-16 September 2021.  The Congress will be held entirely online.

With the motto "Geology Without Borders" this event aims to promote Earth Sciences as a scientific discipline projected into the future, beyond geographical, political and disciplinary boundaries, to better understand the interior of Planet Earth and the structure of the subsurface, defend society from dangerous geological events, better understand climatic variability, plan the use of geo-resources in an ethical way and respecting the environment.


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Earth Sciences should be understood not only as necessary for a better understanding of the interior of the planet Earth, but also as a defense of society from dangerous geological events, for the understanding of climatic variations, for the planning and use of georesources in a ethical and respecting and protecting the environment.

technical paper

A large Neogenic "Calcari a Lucina" deposit - i.e. hydrocarbons-rich cold seep carbonate -, reaching 40 m of thickness and several tens of meters of extension, crops out in the Crotone Basin (South Italy). It is composed of authigenic carbonate forming a facies referable to the conduits of gas/fluid, crosscutting early carbonate-cemented bioclastic and siliciclastic sediments definable as pavement facies. Conduits are commonly characterized by the accretion of meters thick thinly laminated and banded calcite and formed by the alternation of dark micritic laminae and clear crystalline layers. The micritic laminae are characterized by an autochthonous microbial peloidal to dendrolitic fabric, incorporating coprolites and planktonic foraminifera. In contrast the crystalline layers are characterized by microspar laminae and centimeters thick sparry crusts composed of prismatic zoned calcite crystals. The pavement facies is typified by foraminiferal bioturbated mudstone/wackestone gradually passing to mixed arenites as the increasing of the siliciclastic grains composed of quartz, plagioclase, phyllosilicates, aphanitic lithic grains, phaneritic rock fragments, and heavy minerals, all immersed into a micritic carbonate matrix, and indicating both sedimentary and crystalline basement source. The foraminiferal assemblage, characterized by almost exclusively by planktonic forms, and the relative proportion of sandy/silty grains, indicate a deep-water setting with occasional siliciclastic coarser sedimentary flows. A common chemosynthetic macrofauna composed of often articulated and in life-position Lucinids, Mytilids and Vesicomids bivalves, associated to tubeworms and gastropods, is commonly present into such sediments. The deposits of the pavement facies are commonly brecciated, possibly because the overpressure conditions established by the gas/fluid injection, and the displacive growth of the conduit deposits that crosscut the sediments, suggesting a very early cementation of the micritic matrix. Clasts of breccias are also later lined by primary fibrous to acicular isopachous to fan-shaped calcite cement. The high diversity of the heavy minerals in the mixed arenite deposits together with the presence of unstable (green amphibole) and moderately stable (epidote, garnet, sillimanite) heavy detrital species, indicates a burial depth comprised between 600 m and 2000 m during which a late diagenetic phase occurred. A pervasive neomorphic recrystallization of the carbonate grains and the precipitation of mosaic equant calcite cements, filling the remnant voids, took place during this phase.

Neogene seepage carbonate deposition in the Crotone Basin (South Italy), preliminary results

Microbes colonize some of Earth’s most extreme environments, sometimes providing refugees for symbionts and decomposers. The vesicles in porous basalt and basanite of deep-sea volcanoes support flourishing subsurface micro-ecosystems, which are part of the deep biosphere of the igneous oceanic crust. Despite the abundance and antiquity of cryptoendoliths in structural cavities of the oceanic crust, the evolution and ecology of these cryptic ecosystems remain mostly elusive. Here we report morphological and geochemical properties of microbial body fossils in rock samples collected from Vesteris Seamount during cruise MSM86 of MS Maria S. Merian in 2019. The highly porous basanites exhibit densely intergrown filamentous networks and laminated deposits on vesicle walls of probable biotic origin preserved as secondary minerals like manganese- or iron-oxides and others. Morphological evidence suggests the dominance of fungi among filamentous fossils, whereas basal coatings on internal vesicle walls resembling minute stromatolites are interpreted as remains of iron- or manganese-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic bacteria. Hand samples, thin sections, and polished slabs of vesicular basanite also yielded in vivo fungal mycelia associated with globular, botryoidal, and dendritic stromatolites. The spatial relation and growth of fungal filaments upon a basal microbialite suggests a symbiotic-like relation of the supposably autotrophic bacteria and the heterotrophic fungi. Such association would explain the recent findings of a vital fungi community in the oceanic lithosphere.

Crypts in porous basanite: Extreme environments hosting fungal-bacterial micro-ecosystems in a deep-sea volcano, Vesteris Seamount, Greenland Sea

Microbial communities carry out the core redox reactions that control biogeochemical cycles of elements and nutrients mainly thanks to enzymes that use transition metals as catalytic cofactors, suggesting a direct link with the environmental availability of those metals. As Earth’s biosphere and geosphere have coevolved over time, the availability of these metals has changed, influencing surface redox conditions as well as cycling of elements and volatiles, leading to new and more abundant reductant-oxidant pairs, probably impacting the evolution and distribution of metabolic processes and expanding the network of microbial metabolism. Electron transfer reactions are the common thread of the history of life from the very beginning, and the emergence of proteins capable of incorporating metals that facilitate redox reactions is the foundation of the strong link between biosphere and geosphere. The delivery of life’s relevant transition metals is controlled to a first order by tectonic processes. We present here geochemical and microbiological coupled analysis of data from over 250 geothermal locations globally. Our work aims to look for links between the delivery of biologically important transition metals to the surface through plate tectonics and microbial functional diversity. Our dataset reveals correlations between key microbial functions and differences in the delivery of the key metal cofactors to the surface of our planet. Understanding which processes determine the delivery of biologically important transition metals, and how these affect the distribution of microbial enzymes critical for biogeochemistry, will allow to shed light on the interaction between Earth’s geosphere and biosphere, opening new doors not only on better understanding our planet, but also on what are the characteristics to look for in a planet potentially suitable for life.

Linking plate tectonic settings and microbial functions on a global scale

Subduction zones are critically involved in recycling of volatiles and elements between the surface and planetary interior and play a key role in climate stability and planetary habitability. Both in the forearc and backarc regions the lithosphere is affected by the deformation induced by the plate movements, generally favouring lithosphere fractures formations and the widespread origination of deeply-sourced springs, hot or cold, that carry deep fluids and gases up to the surface. These fluids and gases originate from the subducting slab as well as from the interaction of the rising fluids and melting with the overlying crust, and generate "hot spots" of microbial diversity and activity driven by the sharp redox, geochemical and often thermal gradients. Given their direct connection with the subsurface, deeply-sourced springs can be used as a window into the deep to understand processes happening at depth. To be able to use deeply-sourced springs as conduits to the subsurface we need to be able to deconvolve the surface signals from the deep subsurface ones. Despite the abundance of studies looking at the microbiology of hot springs globally, there are relatively few studies linking microbial diversity to the underlying geological processes, and especially in the backarc regions information are scarce. Here we present data on the microbial diversity of the deeply sourced springs along the backarc of the volcanic complex of Puna, Argentina, and assess the extent of influence from surface processes of the spring communities. We conclude that surrounding soil and shallow subsurface microbial communities minimally contribute to the diversity of the deeply sourced fluids that thus represent key samples to investigate the deep continental subsurface.

Deeply-sourced springs microbial diversity: a window into the deep of the Earth 

Being at the boundary between marine and continental realms, marine caves are affected by wide environmental variability for the interaction of marine and continental waters; for this, they are natural laboratories for studying the effects of seasonal and long-term environmental variability also in the perspective of global changes. The first studies of benthic foraminifera from marine caves of the Mediterranean Sea have been carried out in the Gulf of Orosei in the context of a scientific project which started in 2014 and has continued to this day. They demonstrated that benthic foraminifera are very sensitive environmental proxies in these habitats, due to their high diversity and adaptability. The Bue Marino system is constituted by North, Middle and South Branch which join together close to the coast. The study of benthic foraminifera and sediment texture from surface samples, associated with parameters of bottom water, indicated that the Middle Branch was characterized by warmer, saltier and less oxygenated water than the rest of the cave, and by finer sediment with abundant vegetal debris, probably supplied from the mainland during strongly rainy periods (Romano et al., 2021). Then, it was reasonable hypothesizing that cave sediments, although deposited in enclosed environment, are reliable archives of past climatic changes. A 18 cm long sediment core, collected in 2018 in the Middle Branch, was studied for grainsize and benthic foraminifera in order to highlight evidence of temporal changes of environmental conditions and their causes. In the whole core, sediment texture was homogeneous, with prevailing sand and silt in similar proportions, while clay was less abundant and gravel nearly absent. Two hyaline (Ammonia inflata and A. tepida) and one agglutinated species (Eggerelloides advenus), dominated the assemblage, accounting for a total of 70-92%. A main change occurred along the core, at 11 cm depth, for the shift from an assemblage in the lower section with prevailing A. inflata, to another one where the highly opportunistic E. advenus and A. tepida dominated. Of these two assemblages, the latter was more similar to that recorded in the surface sample (0-2 cm), collected at the same sampling station, for the dominance of E. advenus, despite A. inflata slightly prevailed on A. tepida. It was interpreted as the result of a highly organically-enriched environment where opportunistic taxa benefited of abundant degraded organic material under low-oxygen conditions. The prevalence of the “indifferent” A. inflata in the lower core suggests less stressed conditions with minor supply of continental vegetal debris, probably due to less frequent and/or intense rainy episodes in past times.

Paleoecological reconstruction and modern analogues from foraminiferal proxies in the Middle Branch of Bue Marino Cave (Sardinia, Italy). Work in progress

Cold seep environments are often associated with chemosynthetic communities at the seafloor, reflecting the spatial distribution and magnitude of methane fluxes in the sediment underneath. Quantifying areal fluxes and rates of consumption via anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is extremely important for better understanding the future response of the benthic filter to climate-induced ocean warming. Short-time-scale transient processes such as tides, seasonal bottom water temperature fluctuations are efficiently recorded in unsteady-state pore water profiles. However, to interpret the long-term trends in methane fluxes and controlling factors one needs to integrate this data with sedimentary proxies and conduct paleo-reconstructions. We present a case study from the SW Barents Sea at Leirdjupet Fault Complex, where active methane seepage has been observed in summer 2018 from 295 m to 350 m water depth and is associated with microbial mats and tubeworms. We discuss the modern seepage conditions based on pore water data and habitat maps generated through Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) classification, and discuss the history of seepage recorded in sediment cores. A new ROV survey conducted in June 2021 in the same area revealed a very different situation compared to 2018, consistent with the long-term reconstructions since Late Weichselian deglaciation.

Every cold seep tells a story: the case study of Leirdjupet Fault Complex, SW Barents Sea

The Mississippian Derbyshire Carbonate Platform outcrops, in the Peak District in UK, host many mud mound complexes (Gutteridge, 1995). The one near the village of Monyash, in Ricklow Quarry, is one of the best for outcrop quality and accessibility. Fieldwork and petrographic study allowed recognising three facies associations in the complex. A basal tabular portion, five metres thick, consists of nodular packstone-rudstone beds with patches of clotted peloidal-leiolitic micrite boundstone, interbedded with tabular clotted peloidal-leiolitic micrite/fenestellid bryozoan boundstone mounds (FA 1). The overlying, dome-shaped, decametre-size mound complex core formed by lateral accretion of numerous dome-shaped, metre-size mounds. These consist of an association of fenestellid bryozoan/clotted peloidal-leiolitic micrite boundstone with radiaxial fibrous calcite cement (FA 2). The mound core is flanked by dipping beds characterized by clotted peloidal-leiolitic micrite/fenestellid bryozoan boundstone, passing downslope to skeletal packstone with brachiopods and crinoids (FA 3). Flank beds are transitional to the crinoid-rich packstone/grainstone-rudstone beds occurring laterally to the mound complex. Clotted peloidal-leiolitic micrite textures have been interpreted as originated from in-situ precipitation mediated by the presence of microbial mats on the sea floor (Pickard, 1996). Likely, the complex developed during a deepening of the depositional environment in a middle-ramp intraplatform setting, by microbial communities colonisation of the seafloor. Microbially-mediated in-situ precipitates were then occupied by brachiopods and bryozoans, forming mounds whose vertical growth was prevented by currents (FA 1). A further deepening of the environment allowed vertical growth and coalescence of dome-shaped mounds, which accreted to form the decametre-size core (FA 2). Flank beds (FA 3) developed as a result of the metre-scale mound complex core relief over the seafloor. The presence of inner ramp crinoidal grainstone beds onlapping the complex core and vadose cements on top of the mound complex reveal that mound growth was interrupted by a phase of relative sea-level fall and subaerial exposure. Preliminary evaluation of the diagenetic history through petrographic analysis shows a first phase of marine diagenesis (radiaxial fibrous calcite cement), followed by meteoric diagenesis (dissolution vugs, pendant vadose cement). During the following burial phase, mechanical compaction, cementation (blocky calcite cement), silicification and pressure solution occurred. Fissure formation was followed by precipitation of coarse late calcite cement. Finally, hydrocarbons and mineralising fluids pumped from adjacent basinal areas (e.g. Walkden & Williams, 1991) opened fractures, stylolites and intercrystalline discontinuities. Presence of bitumen in the resulting fissures prevented the precipitation of further calcite cement, leaving open secondary porosity.

Facies architecture and diagenesis in a Mississippian mud mound complex from Derbyshire (UK)

The Monte Cocuzzo tectonic window, located in the central part of the Catena Costiera Calabra (Calabria - south Italy), hosts a thick Norian-Rhaetian carbonate succession characterized by three different depositional units representing three successive carbonate platform systems of the western Tethys realm: early-middle Norian Lower Complex, middle-late Norian Intermediate Complex and late Norian-Rhaetian Upper Complex. The Lower Complex platform system is characterized by spread and isolated bio-constructed bodies showing an oligotypic community with a primary framework composed by sponges, red algae and corals; and a secondary framework by microbialites, foraminifera and serpulids. Globose clusters of sponges (Olangocoeliidae), encrusting red algae (Solenopora) and microbial crusts, represent the start-phase of the reef construction. In the successive frame-building phase, sponges and red algae progressively decrease in favor of pennulate isolate (Distichophyllia sp.) and colonial (Retiophyllia sp.) corals, the latter forming dendroid fun-shaped tufts (50-60 cm thick). Coral skeletons are encrusted by microbial laminae, serpulids and red algae and are immersed into bioclastic detritus composed by echinoid fragments, bivalves and gastropods tests and rare bryozoans. The primary framework is composed by 41% sponges, 35% red algae and 24% corals, whereas the secondary framework by 41% foraminifera, 35% microbialites and 24% serpulids. The accessory organisms are 19% echinoids, 8% bivalves and 6% gastropods and the rest of the volume is represented by non-bioclastic sediments (39%) and primary cements (28%). The bioconstructions are commonly onlapped by bioclastic packstone-grainstones enriched into dasycladacean algae and foraminifera indicating a relatively shallow water environment, probably characterized by disphotic and eutrophic waters as testified by the presence of pennulate corals. These bioconstructions can represent patch reefs located along the carbonate platform margins directly facing an internal restricted basin generally characterized by stressed environmental conditions. In fact, during the whole Norian, syn-depositional down-faulting pulses, accompanied by gradual eustatic sea-level drops, induced repeated episodes of basin restrictions with a consequent limited water circulation and stressed conditions affecting the late Triassic Western Tethyan general carbonate platform domain.

Palaeoecology of late Triassic bioconstructions in the Western Tethyan domain (M.te Cocuzzo - North Calabria)

Classic paleogeographic scenarios for the Cretaceous of the Central Mediterranean area depicted the peri-Adriatic region as punctuated by patchy carbonate platforms far from the main emergent lands. The increasing dinosaur record of African affinity in Italy questioned such palaeogeographic scenarios and suggests the proximity of landmass areas connecting Africa and Adria during Cretaceous times. Besides several track-sites and some exceptionally-preserved specimens, the Italian dinosaur record also consists of isolated bones, among which the fragment of a theropod bone discovered in NW Sicily (Capaci) in a carbonate succession pertaining to the Panormide Carbonate Platform (PCP). This bone fragment was previously referred to the Cenomanian and its occurrence strongly supports the hypothesis of a land bridge connecting Africa and Adria via PCP. More recently, new sedimentological and biostratigraphic data from this carbonate succession (i.e. Pizzo Muletta) have allowed to predate the chronostratigraphic position of the dinosaur bone to upper Aptian–lower Albian and to assess a detailed Aptian–Cenomanian evolution of this sector of the PCP. In particular, a karstic overprint has been observed thus indicating a subaerial exposure of the platform preceding its drowning in latest Cenomanian times. The obtained results extend the chronostratigraphic interval of the possible land bridge between Africa and Adria at least from Aptian to Cenomanian and highlight the progressive tectonic dismantling of this connection during the Late Cretaceous. 

The continental bridge between Africa and Adria: new insights from the Lower Cretaceous of NW Sicily (Italy)

The Calcare di Base (CdB) Fm is a carbonate/evaporitic unit formed during the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the the central Mediterranean region, before the deposition of massive halite and sulphate bodies. An integrated facies and stratigraphic analysis of the CdB was performed along the neogenic basins of north Calabria, that allowed to propose a sedimentary and evolutionary model in which the CdB consists of a carbonate, with minor evaporites, platform-to-slope system, formed during a general cold and arid climate period, characterized by precession-forced more humid intervals. The inner platform setting was generally characterized by a sabkha-type environment with scattered lakes and coastal lagoons grading into a shallow-marine unrimmed shelf. In particular, as the general aridity, restricted conditions frequently established, inducing hypersalinity and local anoxia. Such general stressed environmental conditions favored the thriving of extensive lithifying microbial-mats dominated by sulfur bacteria, that acted as the main carbonate factory along the whole shelf, producing widespread microbial carbonate deposits, associated with precipitation of gypsum-dominated evaporitic deposits. During the more humid periods an increasing in the runoff provoked the substantial reduction of the carbonate production, the interruption of the evaporitic sedimentation, the input of fine to coarse silicilcastic sediments, and the formation of dissolution breccias. The slope setting is inferred with a general low-angle profile and was typified by breccias and disorganized floatbreccias commonly developing along the inner slope, and by slides, slumps and channelized turbidites forming along the mid-to-outer slope to basin. During the arid periods the resedimentation processes were generally limited and characterized by monomictic (carbonate) debrites. In comparison, during the humid phases, the enhanced erosion and the consequent mixed carbonate/evaporite/terrigenous sediment exportation towards the basin, resulted in the formation of thicker polymictic breccia and megabreccia bodies.

Climatic and sea-level changes control travertine deposition: the Lapis Tiburtinus case study (Tivoli, Central Italy)

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Neogene seepage carbonate deposition in the Crotone Basin (South Italy), preliminary results

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Climatic and sea-level changes control travertine deposition: the Lapis Tiburtinus case study (Tivoli, Central Italy)

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Next from SGI 2021

Neogene seepage carbonate deposition in the Crotone Basin (South Italy), preliminary results

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Urban geomorphology as a tool to evaluate coastal variations in historical times. An example from the Italian adriatic coastal cities

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