Ungulate dietary adaptations and palaeoecology of the Middle Pleistocene site of Fontana Ranuccio (Anagni, Central Italy)

2018 ◽  
Vol 496 ◽  
pp. 238-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavia Strani ◽  
Daniel DeMiguel ◽  
Fabio Bona ◽  
Raffaele Sardella ◽  
Italo Biddittu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Middle Pleistocene

Sedimentology, faunal content and pollen record of Middle Pleistocene palustrine and lagoonal sediments from the Peri-Adriatic basin, Abruzzi, eastern central Italy

2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierluigi Pieruccini ◽  
Claudio Di Celma ◽  
Federico Di Rita ◽  
Donatella Magri ◽  
Giorgio Carnevale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Freshwater Wetlands ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Pollen Record ◽  
Vegetation Development ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Open Forest ◽  
Facies Succession

AbstractA 25 m-thick outcrop section exposed at Torre Mucchia, on the sea-cliff north of Ortona, eastern central Italy, comprises a rare Middle Pleistocene succession of shallow-water and paralic sediments along the western Adriatic Sea. An integrated study of the section, including facies and microfacies analyses, and characterization of paleobiological associations (mollusks, fishes, ostracods, foraminifers and pollen), enable a detailed reconstruction of the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions during deposition. The shallow-water deposits include a transgressive, deepening- and fining-upward shoreface to offshore-transition facies succession overlain by a regressive shoreface-foreshore sandstone body with an erosive base and a rooted and pedogenically altered horizon at the top that imply deposition during sea-level fall. This forced regressive unit is overlain by paralic strata forming a transgressive succession comprising palustrine carbonates and back-barrier lagoonal mudstones. The palustrine carbonates exhibit some of the typical features encountered in palustrine limestones deposited within seasonal freshwater wetlands (marl prairies). Following the sea-level rising trend, the freshwater marshes were abruptly replaced by a barrier-lagoon system that allowed deposition of the overlying mud-rich unit. Within these deposits, the faunal assemblages are consistent with a low-energy brackish environment characterized by a relatively high degree of confinement. The pollen record documents the development of open forest vegetation dominated by Pinus and accompanied by a number of mesophilous and thermophilous tree taxa, whose composition supports a tentative correlation with Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 17. The new pollen record from Torre Mucchia improves our understanding of the vegetation development in the Italian Peninsula during the Middle Pleistocene and sheds new light on the role played by the most marked glacial periods in determining the history of tree taxa.

scholarly journals Stratigraphy, sedimentology, and archaeology of Middle Pleistocene localities near Ceprano, Campogrande area, Italy

2019 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 155-171
Author(s):  
Italo Biddittu ◽  
Marie-Hélène Moncel ◽  
Salvatore Milli ◽  
Luca Bellucci ◽  
Massimo Ruffo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Homo Heidelbergensis ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Meandering Channel ◽  
Human Fossil ◽  
Fossil Specimen ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene

AbstractThe Ceprano human calvarium, dated around 400,000 yr, is a well-known fossil specimen. It represents significant evidence of hominin presence in the Italian peninsula during the Middle Pleistocene and may be considered representative of an archaic variant of the widespread and polymorphic species Homo heidelbergensis. Since its discovery (March 1994), systematic surveys in the Campogrande area near Ceprano, central Italy, identified 12 localities (CG1-12) with archaeological and/or paleontological assemblages. On this basis, fieldwork was carried out at Campogrande between 2001 and 2006, including drilled cores and excavations, allowing a detailed description of the stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental context associated with the human fossil specimen and the archaeological materials. In the present paper we focus on the stratigraphy and sedimentological features of the uppermost deposits, coupled with a detailed appraisal of the available lithic assemblages that mostly belongs to overlying sediments (CG9 and CG10 localities). We conclude that the Ceprano hominin died in a floodplain environment with a low topographic gradient, where a fluvial meandering channel occurred. The archaeological materials describe a network of sites that document common behavioural features of human groups of the mid-to-late Middle Pleistocene, representing evidence of the regionalization observed across Europe after Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 12.

Inversion tectonics during post-orogenic extensional collapse: a comparison between ancient (North Sea, UK) and recent (Fucino Basin, central Apennines Apennines) intermontane systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Patruno ◽  
Vittorio Scisciani
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Collapse ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Coupled Analysis ◽  
Inversion Tectonics ◽  
Central Apennines ◽  
The North ◽  
Fucino Basin ◽  
Extensional Collapse

<p>Post-orogenetic extensional/gravitational collapse events constitute a relatively poorly understood tectonic process, which is responsible for the quick and effective dismantling of the thickened crust and topographic bulge of fold-and-thrust belt edifices. These events are also responsible for the accumulation of very thick post-orogenetic successions and, in case of active extension, may trigger moderate to strong earthquakes resulting in obvious seismic hazards (e.g., the 1915 Mg 7.0 Fucino earthquake in Central Italy, which caused 30,000 victims)</p><p>Here, we combine seismic interpretation coupled with well analyses, basin modelling and a thorough literature review, in order to compare an ancient and a modern example of study areas subject to post-orogenetic collapse. The Devonian-age Old Red Sandstones of north-western Europe and ?Plio-Quaternary fill of the Fucino intramontane extensional basin in the central Apennines (Italy) share several stratigraphic, depositional and tectonic characteristics. Both are characterized by remarkably similar seismic-stratigraphic architecture (with syn-depositional half-grabens) and maximum thickness of >1,500 metres. In the Fucino, the border faults associated to the main tectonic depocentres achieved maximum throw rates of 1,000-1,400 mm/kyr.</p><p>Both units comprise thick continental siliciclastic successions, dominated by lacustrine and alluvial to fluvio-deltaic facies. The facies architecture reveals a progressive transition from localized, fault-bounded depocentres to transgressive lacustrine successions in wider basins that are less reliant on the sole fault-driven subsidence. The studied units were deposited due to high and quick tectonic subsidence which took place very shortly after the end (or during?) of crustal shortening processes (respectively Caledonian and Apenninic orogenesis) and in a post-orogenic collapse context.</p><p>In both study areas, the sedimentation of the thick continental units are intimately associated to a polyphase inversion tectonics, with pre-existing inherited deep-seated discontinuities affected, in places, first by a positive and subsequently by a negative reactivation during the extensional collapse. A further element common in the two study areas, is a strike-slip or oblique tectonics occurring during or immediately prior to the extensional collapse achieved by the normal faulting. This has been interpreted as a consequence of the gradual rotation of the stress vectors around their axes, culminating in the relaxation of the horizontal compressive stress and the onset of the post-orogenetic extensional/gravitational collapse process itself. For example, in the Fucino Basin, maximum Plio-Quaternary sediment thicknesses of >1700 m occur in two tectonic depocentres, situated respectively to the north and east of the basin. In contrast, the south-eastern striking dip-slip border faults bounding the eastern edge of the Fucino show maximum slip rates in the Lower-Middle Pleistocene, with evidence (e.g., Gioia dei Marsi) for a very recent activity, possibly linked with the 1915 seismic event.</p><p>The study of post-orogenic extensional collapse by comparison of ancient and recent basins suggest that in these settings poly-phase tectonic inversion commonly occurs and promote multiple reactivation of inherited zones of weakness. The comprehension of the common and dissimilar features, may be fundamental to better understand the mechanism and evolution of post-orogenic chain reworking and for natural resources and geological hazards assessment, including earthquakes. The coupled analysis of an ancient and recent example enables just that.</p>

Human peopling of Italian intramontane basins: The early Middle Pleistocene site of Pagliare di Sassa (L'Aquila, central Italy)

2010 ◽  
Vol 223-224 ◽  
pp. 170-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.R. Palombo ◽  
M. Mussi ◽  
S. Agostini ◽  
M. Barbieri ◽  
E. Di Canzio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Intramontane Basins

A multidisciplinary approach to investigate the geomorphological evolution induced by landslides in the piedmont and coastal sectors of Abruzzo region (Central Italy)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monia Calista ◽  
Valeria Menna ◽  
Enrico Miccadei ◽  
Nicola Sciarra
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Soft Rock ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Alluvial Fan ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Abruzzo Region ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Geomorphological Evolution

<p>According to their structural-geomorphological features, different types of landslides, with variable areal extension, largely affect the Abruzzo region (Central Italy) from the mountains to the coastal areas, contributing to the geomorphological evolution of the landscape.</p><p>In this work, we present the results of integrated investigations carried out in recent years in the Abruzzo piedmont and the coastal areas. In detail, we investigated the role of the morphostructural setting, seismic and meteorological factors in the development of piedmont landslides, and the geomorphological evolution, erosion and retreat processes widespread along clastic soft rock coasts of the region.</p><p>We investigated Ponzano landslide (Civitella del Tronto, Teramo), a large translational slide-complex landslide, affecting the Miocene–Pliocene pelitic-arenaceous bedrock, and the Castelnuovo landslide (Campli, Teramo) a complex (topple/fall-slide) landslide, which involved conglomerate rocks pertaining to terraced alluvial fan deposits of the Pleistocene superficial deposits. Both these landslides occurred in the NE Abruzzo hilly piedmont in February 2017, causing severe damage and evacuees. Regarding the coastal area, we analyzed rockfalls, topples and translational landslides which characterize the active cliffs of Torre Mucchia, Punta Lunga, Punta Ferruccio (Ortona, CH) and Punta Aderci (Vasto, CH), composed of clayey-sandy-arenaceous-conglomeratic marine sequence (Early-Middle Pleistocene) covered by continental deposits (Late Pleistocene-Holocene). These coastal areas are popular tourist destinations, included in natural reserve areas with high tourism, natural and cultural landscape value.</p><p>Through this multidisciplinary approach, the lithological, geomorphological and structural-jointing features were estimated. Focusing on their role on the stability, processes and dynamics affecting Abruzzo piedmont and coastal sectors, it was possible to analyze the triggering factors, the landslide mechanisms and types, as well as the most critical and/or failure areas.</p><p>The obtained results outline how field and remote investigations combined with FLAC3D numerical modeling provide an effective approach in the analysis of landslides, strongly improving the identification and prediction of landscape changes and supporting a new geomorphological hazards assessment.</p>

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