00464 - Geology

Learning outcomes

Give basic informations about the Geo Sciences investigation metodology; provide essential data on the composition, structure and evolution of the Earth, mostly concerning with the Lithosphere and the Crust and their geological generating processes.

Course contents

LABORATORY

Analysis and recognition of the main tipes of sedimentary rocks; Topographic and geological map reading.

 

INDOOR LESSONS

1) Earth's interior

Direct and indirect data, density, temperature, pressure; Meteorites, seismic waves, seismographs and seismograms, crust, mantle, core, lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, convective cells, heat flow and geothermal gradient; Evolution of the primordial atmosphere; Moon's origin; Radioactive decay and rock ages; Earth's magnetism, magnetosphere; Paleomagnetism, magnetic anomalies.

2) Lithospheric plates

Plate tectonics and kinematics; main plate margins: mid-ocean ridges, transform faults, asthenospheric ascent: from rifting to drifting; Ages, characters and evolution of the ocean floors, the Mid-Atlantic expansion, E-Africa Rift Valley; destructive margins; Subduction A and B, Fosse, earthquakes and volcanoes; Tonga-Kermadec Trench, Peru-Chile Trench; Evolution of the Andean Cordillera, of Japan , of India and Himalayas; Transform margins, San Andreas Fault; Approach to plate tectonics (cognitive and historical): from continental drift to plate tectonics

3) Hot Spots

Hot spots on the oceanic and continental crusts; Yellowstone superpspot; Magmatic provinces and mass extinctions;

4) Igneous rocks and Volcanic processes and products

Magmatic series; viscosity, temperature, silica and gas content; Geodynamic context of volcanic products; pyroclastic deposits and depositional processes; Anatomy of shield volcanoes and strato-volcanoes; Situations examples: Krakatoa, St. Helens, Paricutin, Pelee, Santorini, Vesuvius, Etna; The volcanic risk

5) Chemical and physical degradation and sediment-transport processes

Regolith, soil and sediments, sediments and their environments; Selective transport processes; mass transport processes, debris flow dominated fans, alluvial plains with alluvial fans; braided and meandering river channels; Anatomy of the fluvial bars; Equation of risk, hydrological hazard and vulnerability; Landslides, frana Vajont; landslides in Emilia-Romagna; Continental margins with delta, beach ridges and lagoons, river delta dynamics: examples from the ancient delta of the Isonzo River, from the Po delta; Dynamics of sandy beaches: examples from Cape Cod (USA), from Dune of Pilat (F), from St. Michel (F), from the Baltic Sea (GB), from Corsica (F); Continental Shelf , dunes and ripples, bioturbation; Continental slope with submarine canyons, abyssal plains, deep sea currents and turbidity deposits.

6) From sediment to rock

Diagenesis; Rock succession relative ages; Principles of stratigraphy; Sedimentary rock classification; Composition, texture, structures of the terrigenous sedimentary rocks; Biochemical sedimentary rocks: constituents and environments; Oolitic bars, micrite and spatite; Folk's classification of carbonatic rocks; Reefs (facies and geometry), chemical Rocks: evaporites, speleothems, chemical substitution rocks (chert, dolomite secondary); sea level absolute and relative changes: the example of the Mediterranean Sea (Miocene Sup.). Summary of bio- and chronostratigraphy of the Italian Quaternary. Pleistocene Alpine glaciations.

7) The orogenetic chains

Isostasy; Tectonic structures of brittle and ductile domains; Types of faults and folds; Polarity of stratigraphic sequence, folds and vergence; Crustal shortening; Earthquakes: hypocenter, epicenter (calculation of the epicentre), the Mercalli scale, magnitude, seismic risk; Metamorphic rocks (elements), types of metamorphism; Circum-Mediterranean regional geology, Alps and the Apennines evolution.

8) The geological maps

Symbols in the geologic maps; The stratigraphic framework, space-space and space-time diagrams; The geological sections.

9) Circum-Mediterranean geology

Hercynian and Alpine orogeny, Alps and Apennines; Foredeep and foreland; Back-arc basins; Corsica-Sardinia block; Tyrrhenian Sea; Calabrian Arc; Active and past volcanism and its geodynamic meaning.

10) Climate recent and past

What the media say. Open discussion.

Readings/Bibliography

LA TERRA: RITRATTO DI UN PIANETA (S. Marshak, 2004) - Zanichelli

SI FORMA SI DEFORMA SI MODELLA: come il territorio si modifica attraverso il tempo geologico (C. Venturini, 2010) - Geoworld e Comunità Montana della Carnia

STORIA GEOLOGICA d'ITALIA gli ultimi 200 milioni di anni (A. Bosellini, 2005) - Zanichelli

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons, laboratory actiovity (reading and soft interpretation of geologic maps and empirical analyses of sedimentary rocks).

Assessment methods

Oral examination

Teaching tools

Power-point, Google Earth, geological thematic maps.

Links to further information

http://www.corradoventurini.it

Office hours

See the website of Corrado Venturini

See the website of Claudia Spalletta