ABSTRACT Results from laboratory analyses of thermophysical properties and mineralogical composition of rocks belonging to the main geological formations of the Umbria-Marche stratigraphic succession are presented. We carried out measurements of thermal conductivity, porosity, and density. The samples were mineralogically characterized by means of powder X-ray diffraction and by calcimetry. Scanning electron microscope analyses were conducted to ascertain the absence of mineralized veins, which could have biased the mineralogical composition. A mixing model was also applied to infer the thermal conductivity. The results can be useful to characterize the behavior of shallow geothermal systems in the study region.

Abstract The study of some major fault zones in the Apennines was mostly focused on the acquisition of quantitative data in situ aimed at deriving input parameters for modelling faulted rock volumes. Structural data collected in the Monte Alpi area (southern Italy) and in the central Apennines allowed us to: (i) estimate the fractal dimension characterizing the geometric complexity and size distribution of different fault and fracture patterns; (ii) assess the appropriate parameters defining the overall architecture, anisotropy and related permeability structure of the mapped fault zones; and (iii) constrain the scaling properties of some of the attributes (i.e. length, spacing, map pattern, fracture density, etc.) of both fault-related and regional fracture sets. The results of our work suggest that the above data are appropriate for extrapolating field based information at different scales, and for producing 3D models of fault and fracture networks.

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present old and new data about our integrated interdisciplinary stratigraphic study of sedimentary deposits preserved in the Grotta dei Baffoni Cave of the Frasassi hypogenic cave complex, including sedimentological, paleontological, archaeometric, and radiometric analyses. This research work allowed us to reconstruct the geologic, environmental, and human history of this part of the northeastern Apennines of Italy for the past 200,000 years, from the late Middle Pleistocene to the Present. Accumulation of alluvial sediment began in this cave ~200,000 years ago, when an entrance was breached by the Sentino River during its process of incision and deepening of the Frasassi Gorge coupled with regional tectonic uplift. Flooding of the cave went on until the entrance sill of the cave was lifted up to an elevation that could no longer be reached by the river, sometime in the mid–Late Pleistocene. After this, windblown dust (i.e., loess) and coarser carbonate clasts derived from the disintegration of the vaults due to cryogenic processes and/or seismically induced collapses of the limestone vaults, accumulated on this now-dry underground environment. The stratigraphy of an ~4-m-thick sedimentary deposit accumulated in the vast atrium room of the cave was measured, sampled, and documented in two excavation trenches in 1952 by archaeologist Anton Mario Radmilli. By collecting a dozen stratigraphically located osteological finds for 14 C dating, and revisiting artifacts collected by Radmilli, which are archived respectively in the Museum of Natural History of Verona and in the National Museum of Archaeology of Ancona, we assessed that the cave was frequented by wild animals, such as cave bear and ibex, starting in the mid–Late Pleistocene. Dating of charcoal particles from subsurface sediments in the inner part of the cave suggested that fires were lit in this cave by Epigravettian visitors during the Younger Dryas cold period. Scarce archaeological evidence nevertheless suggests that man began using this underground environment for worship practices probably in the early Neolithic. Human bones in the lower part of one of Radmilli's excavations yielded early Eneolithic ages. No other human bones were found in overlying levels of this excavation, but the typology of animal bones and associated ceramic artifacts, corroborated by our 14 C dates, suggest that this cave was utilized as a worship or ritual place until the early Middle Bronze Age. After that, the cave was sporadically used as a shelter for herders until recent times.

Abstract Both structural and petrophysical (porosity, φ, and permeability, k ) data show that the basin-bounding normal faults of the Fucino Basin, central Italy, have a combined barrier–conduit effect on fluid flow. The deformed carbonates comprise fault cores of both matrix- and cement-supported fault rocks (low φ and k ) and major slip surfaces, and damage zones of fragmented and pulverized carbonates (high φ and k ) and small faults. The host rocks are Mesozoic, platform-related boundstones with low φ (<1%) and low k (<1×10 −4 mD). The results of ultrasonic analysis suggest that the fragmented carbonates contain pores with a high aspect ratio, whereas the fault rocks have pores with a low aspect ratio and some moldic porosity. These two separate fluid units are modelled as an elastic cracked medium (fragmented carbonates), and as a granular medium (fault core). By using well-known correlations, their permeability is then computed from known values of φ, pore radii and elastic moduli.

ABSTRACT Stratigraphic analysis of two sections of a fluvial strath terrace exposed on the left bank of the Esino River near the village of Trocchetti (province of Ancona, Marche region of central Italy), and the study of a large landslide located near the village of San Cristoforo, a few kilometers down valley from the Trocchetti fluvial terrace, provide evidence for two catastrophic environmental events, namely: (1) the aggradation on the riverbed of coarse, chaotic gravel due to a violent flashflood; and (2) the formation of a large ephemeral lake as the consequence of the landslide that barred the river channel at San Cristoforo. Archaeological and historical information about the lost Roman city of Tuficum , which was located just a kilometer upriver from the Trocchetti terrace, and ceramic artifacts found in the chaotic gravel unit, led us to the hypothesis that both the flashflood and the landslide were induced by the sudden, severe climate change of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (mid-sixth century to mid-seventh century CE).