ABSTRACT Travertine deposits preserved within ancient aqueduct channels record information about the hydrology, temperature, and chemistry of the flowing water from which they precipitated. However, travertine is also chemically reactive and susceptible to freshwater diagenesis, which can alter its original composition and impact reconstructions of aqueduct operation, maintenance, and climate. Hydraulic reconstructions, in combination with a suite of high-resolution optical, laser, electron, and X-ray microscopy analyses, have been used to determine the original crystalline structure and diagenetic alteration of travertine deposited in the Anio Novus aqueduct built in A.D. 38–52 at Roma Vecchia. Age-equivalent travertine deposits, precipitated directly on the mortar-covered floor at upstream and downstream sites along a 140-m-long continuous section of the Anio Novus channel, exhibit consistent crystalline textures and stratigraphic layering. This includes aggrading, prograding, and retrograding sets of travertine linguoid, sinuous, and hummocky crystal growth ripples, as well as sand lags with coated siliciclastic grains deposited on the lee slope of ripple crests. The original aqueduct travertine, which is similar to travertine formed in analogous natural environments, is composed of shrub-like, dendritically branching aggregates of 1–3-μm-diameter euhedral calcite crystals. Dark brown organic matter-rich laminae, formed by microbial biofilms and plant debris, create stratigraphic sequences of high-frequency, dark–light layering. This hydraulic and petrographic evidence suggests that large, radiaxial calcites diagenetically replaced the original aqueduct travertine shrubs, forming upward-branching replacement crystals that crosscut the biofilm laminae. While this diagenetic process destroyed the original crystalline fabric of the calcite shrubs, the entombed biofilm laminae were mimetically preserved. These integrated approaches create the type of depositional and diagenetic framework required for future chemostratigraphic analyses of travertine deposited in the Anio Novus and other ancient water conveyance and storage systems around the world, from which ancient human activity and climatic change can be more accurately reconstructed.

Abstract To contribute to the understanding of the impacts of fault reactivation induced by reservoir exploitation, we describe the final series of laboratory experiments, numerical simulations and microstructural analysis conducted during the ‘Fault Reactivation in Carbonates’ research project. In the project, the structure and hydromechanical properties of carbonate-hosted fault zones were investigated. For the analyses here reported, faults were artificially generated by direct shearing composite blocks made of layers of reservoir analogue rocks (outcrop travertine or synthetic grainstone) intercalated with one layer of a sealing analogue rock (synthetic carbonate mudstone). Post-direct shearing, cylindrical plugs containing the fault zone and parts of intact rock were cored out from the blocks and tested in a triaxial test rig, simulating fault reactivation. Varied stress paths and pore-pressure conditions representative of fluid depletion and injection were considered. In parallel, two-dimensional mechanical models representative of the direct shear experiments were developed using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). We observed a continuous reduction in fault transmissibility during direct shearing, followed by a permeability reduction of 50–80% with increasing mean effective stress in the subsequent fault reactivation tests. Experimental fault zone geometries produced during direct shear were broadly reproduced by the two-dimensional modelling approach. We also detected that the inclusion of the carbonate mud sealing rock into the fault zone caused greater compaction of the fault materials when compared to experiments conducted without carbonate mud layers. We conclude that with fault displacement, increasing incorporation of carbonate mud sealing material into the fault zone and the concomitant development of gouge results in the continuous reduction of fault transmissibility/permeability. This occurs in the two very different limestone host-rock types and for all the stress configurations investigated. Discussions on these results and also on the outcomes of the research project as a whole are presented in the paper.