“Reconsidering Loess in northern Italy”, field workshop in the Po Plain, northern Italy, 1-3 July 2013
https://ppsg2011.uni-hohenheim.de/84878
Organizing committee: Rivka Amit (Geological Survey of Israel), Andrea Zerboni (Università degli Studi di Milano), Franz Livio (Università dell’Insubria – Como), Stefano Carnicelli (Università di Firenze), Alessandro M. Michetti (Università dell’Insubria – Como)
Sites of interest at the margins of the Po Plain:
- Monte Netto (Capriano del Colle, BS): Monte Netto is an isolated hill in the middle of the northern Po Plain, whose growing is due to the amplification of a buried thrust-related anticline since Middle Pleistocene. A thick stratigraphic sedimentary sequence is exposed in a quarry on the top of the hill. This sequence is consisting of fluvioglacial sediments capped by a thick loess pack, intercalated with deeply rubified paleosols. The loess sequence is probably the thickest in northern Italy and corresponds at least to three events of aeolian sedimentation, two of which are dated, by OSL, to the Upper Pleistocene.
- Val Sorda (Incaffi, VR): The Val Sorda sequence is a very well preserved Upper Pleistocene stratigraphic section consisting of the succession of a till, capped with a rubified Eemian paleosol, which is overlain by a colluvial layer and by a thick loess unit, including three chernozem paleosols, formed during MIS 4 and 3; the sequence is capped and preserved by fluvioglacial and glacial deposits (MIS 2).
- Ghiardo (Cavriago, RE): At Ghiardo site, at the margin of the Apennines, there is a complex loess sequence, deposited on Pleistocene alluvial terraces and representing a long term of aeolian sedimentary phases (dust accumulation). This sequence underwent weathering processes during the climate change phases of the mid-to-late Quaternary. Moreover, the surface buried by loess and its initial phase of deposition are contemporaneous with the dwelling of Mousterian hunters.
- Boschi di Carrega (Collecchio, PR): The high terrace of Boschi di Carrega bears a thick loess accumulation of Late Pleistocene age, belonging to the same loess sequence of the Ghiardo plateau. Due to long-term, stable use of land as hunting grounds and to institution of the area as a park, back into the 18th century, conservation of the loess cover is better than average along the northern Apennine piedmont.
Workshop program:
Monday, 1 July:
9.00/9.30: short opening ceremony and leaving from Como; 10.30: picking up people arriving in Milano (Central Station); 12.30: arriving at Incaffi, lunch at Incaffi; 14.00: Val Sorda site; 17.00: leaving from Incaffi to Capriano del Colle; in the evening outreach meeting with the community at the Municipality of Capriano del Colle; staying overnight in Capriano del Colle.
Tuesday, 2 July:
9.00: Monte Netto section (opening of a new trench); 13.00: Lunch in Capriano del Colle; 14.30: leaving from Capriano del Colle to Reggio Emilia/Parma; Ghiardo site (opening of a new trench), close to Reggio Emilia; staying overnight between Reggio Emilia and Parma.
Wednesday, 3 July:
9.00: Collecchio (Parma): visit the Boschi di Carrega site (opening of a new trench); 13.00: lunch in Collecchio; short discussion; 15.00: transfer to Parma (Central Station), Milano (Central Station) and Como (arrival in the evening).