The analysis of apatite fission tracks is applied to the study of the syn- and post-collisional thermochronological evolution of a vast area that includes the Eastern Pontides, their continuation in the Lesser Caucasus of Georgia (Adjara-Trialeti zone) and northern Armenia, and the eastern Anatolian Plateau. The resulting database is then integrated with the data presented by Okay et al. (2010) for the Bitlis Pütürge Massif, i.e. the western portion of the Bitlis-Zagros collision zone between Arabia and Eurasia. The mid-Miocene exhumation episode along the Black Sea coast and Lesser Caucasus of Armenia documented in this dissertation mirrors the age of collision between the Eurasian and Arabian plates along the Bitlis suture zone. We argue that tectonic stresses generated along the Bitlis collision zone were transmitted northward across eastern Anatolia and focused (i) at the rheological boundary between the Anatolian continental lithosphere and the (quasi)oceanic lithosphere of the Black Sea, and (ii) along major pre-existing discontinuities like the Sevan-Akera suture zone.The integration of both present-day crustal dynamics (GPS-derived kinematics and distribution of seismicity) and thermochronological data presented in this paper provides a comparison between short- and long-term deformation patterns for the entire eastern Anatolia-Transcaucasian region. Two successive stages of Neogene deformation of the northern foreland of the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone can be inferred. (i) Early and Middle Miocene: continental deformation was concentrated along the Arabia-Eurasia (Bitlis) collision zone but tectonic stress was also transferred northward across eastern Anatolia, focusing along the eastern Black Sea continent-ocean rheological transition and along major pre-existing structural discontinuities. (ii) Since Late-Middle Miocene time the westward translation of Anatolia and the activation of the North and Eastern Anatolian Fault systems have reduced efficient northward stress transfer.

La valutazione dei rischi associati all’operatività dei sistemi di stoccaggio, quali la sismicità indotta e la subsidenza, è requisito basilare per una loro corretta gestione e progettazione, e passa attraverso la definizione dell’influenza sullo stato tensionale delle variazioni di pressione di poro nel sottosuolo. Principale scopo di questo progetto è lo sviluppo di una metodologia in grado di quantificare le deformazioni dei reservoir in funzione della pressione di poro, di tarare i modelli utilizzati con casi studio che presentino dati di monitoraggio reali, tali da consentire un confronto con le previsioni di modello. In questa tesi, la teoria delle inomogeneità è stata utilizzata, tramite un approccio semianalitico, per definire le variazioni dei campi elastici derivanti dalle operazioni di prelievo e immissione di fluidi in serbatoi geologici. Estensione, forma e magnitudo delle variazioni di stress indotte sono state valutate tramite il concetto di variazione dello sforzo critico secondo il criterio di rottura di Coulomb, tramite un’analisi numerica agli elementi finiti. La metodologia sviluppata è stata applicata e tarata su due reservoir sfruttati e riconvertiti a sistemi di stoccaggio che presentano dataset, geologia, petrofisica, e condizioni operative differenti. Sono state calcolate le variazioni dei campi elastici e la subsidenza; è stata mappata la variazione di sforzo critico di Coulomb per entrambi i casi. I risultati ottenuti mostrano buon accordo con le osservazioni dei monitoraggi, suggerendo la bontà della metodologia e indicando la scarsa probabilità di sismicità indotta. Questo progetto ha consentito la creazione di una piattaforma metodologica di rapido ed efficace utilizzo, per stimare l’influenza dei sistemi di stoccaggio di gas sullo stato tensionale della crosta terrestre; in fase di stoccaggio, permette di monitorare le deformazioni e gli sforzi indotti; in fase di progettazione, consente di valutare le strategie operative per monitorare e mitigare i rischi geologici associati a questi sistemi. / The assessment of the risks associated with the operations of the storage systems, such as induced seismicity and subsidence, is a basic requirement for their proper management and planning, through the definition of the stress state changes induced by pore pressure variations underground. The main aims of this project is to develop a methodology for the quantification of reservoir deformation as a function of pore pressure, and to calibrate the models used on case studies with real monitoring data, in order to compare the predictions of the models. In this thesis, the theory of inhomogeneities has been used, by means of a semianalytical approach, to define the elastic fields variations induced by fluids withdrawal and injection in geological reservoirs at depth. The failure stress change concept for a Coulomb failure criterion has been used to study the extension, shape and magnitude of in induced stress changes, through the development of finite element numerical analysis. The developed methodology has been applied and calibrated on two case studies of exploited reservoir actually converted to storage systems, which present dataset, geological and petrophysical, and various operating conditions; Elastic fields variations and subsidence are calculated, and Coulomb failure stress changes have been mapped for both case studies. The results show a good agreement with the observations arising from monitoring available on case studies, suggesting the releability of the developed methodology and suggest the low likelihood of induced seismicity. This project led to the creation of a quickly and effectively usable methodological base to estimate the influence of gas storage systems on the stress state of the crust and to monitor deformations and induced stresses; during the design stage, it helps to evaluate the operative strategies for mitigation of geological risks associated with these storage facilities.

The application of two low-temperature thermochronometers [fission-track analysis and (U-Th)/He analyses, both on apatite] to various tectonostratigraphic units of the Menderes and Alanya Massifs of Turkey has provided significant new constraints to the understanding of their structural evolution. The Menderes Massif of western Anatolia is one of the largest metamorphic core complexes on Earth. The integration of the geochronometric dataset presented in this dissertation with preexisting ones from the literature delineates three groups of samples within the Menderes Massif. In the northern and southern region the massif experienced a Late Oligocene-Early Miocene tectonic denudation and surface uplift; whereas data from the central region are younger, with most ages ranging between the Middle-Late Miocene. The results of this study are consistent with the interpretation for a symmetric exhumation of the Menderes Massif. The Alanya Massif of SW Anatolia presents a typical nappe pile consisting of thrust sheets with contrasting metamorphic histories. Petrological and geochronological data clearly indicate that the tectonometamorphic evolution Alanya started from Late Cretaceous with the northward subduction of an ‘Alanya ocean’ under the Tauride plate. As an effect of the closure of the İzmir–Ankara–Erzincan ocean, northward backthrusting during the Paleocene-Early Eocene created the present stacking order. Apatite fission-track ages from this study range from 31.8 to 26.8 Ma (Late Rupelian-Early Chattian) and point to a previously unrecognized mid-Oligocene cooling/exhumation episode. (U-Th)/He analysis on zircon crystals obtained from the island of Cyprus evidentiate that the Late Cretaceous trondhjemites of the Troodos Massif not recorded a significant cooling event. Instead results for the Late Triassic turbiditic sandstones of the Vlambouros Formation show that the Mamonia mélange was never buried enough to reach the closure temperature of the ZHe radiometric system (ca. 200°C), thus retaining the Paleozoic signature of a previous sedimentary cycle.

The object of this work has been the analysis of natural processes controlling the geological evolution of the Montenegro and Northern Albania Continental Margin (MACM) during the Late Quaternary. These include the modern sediment dispersal system and oceanographic regime, the building and shaping of the shelf margin at the scale of 100 kyr and relative to the most recent transition between glacial and interglacial periods. The analysis of the new data shows that the MACM is a shelf-slope system formed by a suite of physiographic elements, including: an inner and an outer continental shelf, separated by two tectonically-controlled morphological highs; a lobated drowned mid-shelf paleodelta, formed during the last sea level fall and low stand; an upper continental slope, affected by gravity-driven instability and a system of extensional faults with surficial displacement, featuring an orientation coherent with the regional tectonics. The stratigraphic study of the MACM shows a clear correspondence between the Late Pleistocene/Holocene mud-wedge and the low reflectivity sectors of the inner shelf. Conversely, most of the outer shelf and part of the continental slope expose deposits from the last sea level low stand, featuring a general sediment starving condition or the presence of a thin postglacial sediments cover. The MACM shows uplift in correspondence of the Kotor and Bar ridges, and subsidence in the outer shelf and upper slope sectors. In fact, seaward of these tectonic ridges, the sparker seismic profile show the presence of four well-defined seismo-stratigraphic sequences, interpreted as forced regression deposits, formed during the last four main glacial phases. In this way, the MACM records the 100 kyr scale sea level fluctuations on its seismo-stratigraphic architecture over the last 350 kyr. Over such time range, through the identification of the paleoshoreline deposits, we estimated an average subsidence rate of about 1.2 mm/yr. / L'obiettivo di questo lavoro è stato quello di analizzare i processi naturali che hanno controllato l'evoluzione del Margine Continentale del Montenegro e dell'albania Settentrionale (MACM) durante il tardo Quaternario. Tali processi includono il sistema attuale di dispersione del sedimento ed il regime oceanografico, la formazione ed il modellamento del margine alla scala dei 100 ka e relativamente all'ultimo periodo di transizione dal glaciale all'interglaciale. L'analisi dei nuovi dati mostra che si tratta di un sistema piattaforma-scarpata caratterizzato da: una piattaforma interna ed una esterna dovesono presenti due alti morfologici a controllo tettonico; un delta lobato relitto attribuito all'ultima fase di caduta del livello marino e una scarpata continentale superiore affetta da processi gravitativi superficiali e da sistemi di faglie estensionali a rigetto superficiale che mostrano un'orientazionecoerente con la tettonica regionale. Lo studio stratigrafico del MACM mostra una chiara corrispondenza tra il cuneo fangoso tardo pleistocenico - olocenico ed i settori a bassa riflettività individuati lungo la piattaforma interna. A differenza, gran parte della piattaforma esterna ed una parte della scarpata continentale mostrano depositi appartenenti all'ultima fase di stazionamento basso del livello marino evidenziando quindi la macanza di sedimentazione o la presenza localizzata di sottili coperture di sedimenti post-glaciali. Il MACM mostra sollevamento in corrispondenza dei ridges di Bar e di Kotor, e subsidenza lungo il settore di piattaforma esterna e scarpata continentale. Infatti, esternamente agli alti tettonici, i profili di sparker mostrano la presenza di quattro sequenze sismo-stratigrafiche ben definite, interpretate come sequenze di regressione forzata messe in posto durante le ultime quattro fasi glaciali. Il MACM registra quindi nella sua successione sismo-stratigrafica le variazioni del livello marino a scala di 100ka durante gli ultimi 350 ka. In questo lasso di tempo, attraverso l'identificazione dei depositi di paleospiaggia, viene effettuata una stima del tasso di subsidenza di circa 1.2 mm/a.

Stratigraphic studies carried out over the last decades in Italy and elsewhere testify a growing interest in Quaternary deposits and in the influence of climate change on their architecture. The subsurface of the Po Plain, in its topmost portion, is made up of alluvial deposits organized in depositional cycles at different scales. This PhD thesis provides millennial-scale stratigraphic reconstruction of the Late Pleistocene-Holocene deposits beneath the southern Po Plain, based on basin-scale correlation of laterally-extensive buried soil horizons. Far from the aim of characterizing palaeosols from a mineralogical and geochemical point of view, we focused on the physical and stratigraphic significance of these horizons. In the Bologna urban area, which hosts an abundance of stratigraphic data, the correlation between seventeen continuously-cored boreholes led to the identification of five vertically-stacked palaeosol-bounded sequences within the 14C time window. In a wide portion of the alluvial plain north of Bologna, far away from the Apenninic margin and from the Po River, where subsurface stratigraphic architecture is dominated by markedly lenticular sediment bodies, palaeosols revealed to be the only stratigraphic marker of remarkable lateral continuity. These horizons are characterized by peculiar resistance values, which make them easily identifiable via pocket penetration tests. Palaeosols reveal specific geometric relationships with the associated alluvial facies associations, allowing reliable estimates of soil development as a function of alluvial dynamics. With the aid of sixty new radiocarbon dates, a reliable age attribution and likely time intervals of exposure were assigned to each palaeosol. Vertically-stacked palaeosols delimitate short-term depositional cycles, likely related to the major episodes of climatic change of the last 40 ky. Through integration of stratigraphic data with 750 archaeological reports from the Bologna area, the impact of human settlements on depositional and pedogenic processes during the late Holocene was investigated. / Le indagini stratigrafiche condotte in Italia e nel mondo negli ultimi decenni testimoniano un crescente interesse per i depositi quaternari e per l’influenza esercitata dalle variazioni climatiche sulla loro architettura. Questa tesi di dottorato si occupa della ricostruzione stratigrafica a scala millenaria dei depositi tardo-pleistocenici e olocenici del Bacino Padano, tra Bologna e il Fiume Po, basata sulla correlazione a scala regionale di orizzonti pedogenizzati lateralmente estesi e persistenti. Lungi dal voler caratterizzare i paleosuoli da un punto di vista mineralogico e geochimico, questo lavoro si focalizza sul significato di questi orizzonti in termini di stratigrafia fisica. Nel sottosuolo della città di Bologna, per il quale è disponibile un’eccezionale densità di dati stratigrafici, la correlazione di diciassette sondaggi a carotaggio continuo ha portato all’individuazione di cinque paleosuoli all’interno della finestra del carbonio 14. Nell’area di pianura a nord di Bologna, lontana dal margine appenninico e dal Fiume Po, caratterizzata nel sottosuolo principalmente da corpi sedimentari a geometria lenticolare, i paleosuoli si sono rivelati gli unici orizzonti guida tracciabili per decine di chilometri all’interno della successione tardo-quaternaria. Questi orizzonti sono caratterizzati da valori elevati di resistenza alla compressione e sono legati alle facies deposizionali di ambiente alluvionale da particolari rapporti geometrici, riflesso di precise relazioni intercorrenti tra pedogenesi e dinamiche alluvionali. Tramite la realizzazione di sessanta datazioni, associate a numerosi dati di letteratura, a ciascun paleosuolo è stata assegnata un’età e un tempo medio di esposizione. Il quadro stratigrafico e cronologico che ne deriva ha permesso l’individuazione di cicli deposizionali a scala sub-milankoviana e la loro correlazione con le variazioni climatiche degli ultimi quarantamila anni. L’integrazione dei dati stratigrafici con 750 relazioni di scavi archeologici, ha permesso, infine, di valutare l’impatto della sempre più diffusa presenza dell’uomo sul territorio bolognese sulla formazione e sul seppellimento dei suoli in età tardo-olocenica.

A complete stratigraphic assessment and revision of the middle Campanian to upper Maastrichtian Wapiti Formation in north-western Alberta and north-eastern British Columbia is the main aim of this research project. The study area encompasses an area of approximately 200X180 km in the Grande Prairie County (west-central Alberta) and easternmost British Columbia, Canada. Results presented here indicate that the 1300m thick succession currently reported in the literature as “undifferentiated lithostratigraphic unit”, consists of five lithostratigraphic units and four unconformity-bounded depositional sequences; their study and description have been documented integrating several geological disciplines, including sequence stratigraphic methods, well-log signatures, facies analysis, and fossil associations. On the whole, particular attention has been given to 1) age and nature of both basal and upper contacts of the Wapiti Formation, 2) effective mappability of lithostratigraphic units and depositional sequences in western Alberta, and 3) the identification of previously undetermined maximum flooding surface of the Bearpaw seaway and Drumheller Marine Tongue, which are reference marine unit in central and southern Alberta. A second, but not less important, guideline for the project has been the rich paleontological record of the Wapiti deposits. Detailed paleoenvironmental and taxonomical information on old and new finds have been the base for correlation with well known associations of Alaska, southern Alberta, and Montana. Newly discovered rich fossil localities documented an extraordinarily diverse fauna during the latest Cretaceous, including dinosaurs, squamates, and fresh-water fishes and reptiles. Lastly, in order to better characterize the Wapiti Formation, major marker beds were described: these include several bentonites (altered volcanic ash deposits) which have been documented over an area of almost 30.000 km2, as well as four major coal zones, characterized by tabular coal seams with an overall thickness of 2 meters. Such marker beds represent a formidable tool for high-resolution chronology and regional correlations within the Late Cretaceous Alberta foreland basin.

Iberia Africa plate boundary, cross, roughly W-E, connecting the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Azores triple junction to the Continental margin of Morocco. Relative movement between the two plate change along the boundary, from transtensive near the Azores archipelago, through trascurrent movement in the middle at the Gloria Fracture Zone, to transpressive in the Gulf of Cadiz area. This study presents the results of geophysical and geological analysis on the plate boundary area offshore Gibraltar. The main topic is to clarify the geodynamic evolution of this area from Oligocene to Quaternary. Recent studies have shown that the new plate boundary is represented by a 600 km long set of aligned, dextral trascurrent faults (the SWIM lineaments) connecting the Gloria fault to the Riff orogene. The western termination of these lineaments crosscuts the Gibraltar accretionary prism and seems to reach the Moroccan continental shelf. In the past two years newly acquired bathymetric data collected in the Moroccan offshore permit to enlighten the present position of the eastern portion of the plate boundary, previously thought to be a diffuse plate boundary. The plate boundary evolution, from the onset of compression in the Oligocene to the Late Pliocene activation of trascurrent structures, is not yet well constrained. The review of available seismics lines, gravity and bathymetric data, together with the analysis of new acquired bathymetric and high resolution seismic data offshore Morocco, allows to understand how the deformation acted at lithospheric scale under the compressive regime. Lithospheric folding in the area is suggested, and a new conceptual model is proposed for the propagation of the deformation acting in the brittle crust during this process. Our results show that lithospheric folding, both in oceanic and thinned continental crust, produced large wavelength synclines bounded by short wavelength, top thrust, anticlines. Two of these anticlines are located in the Gulf of Cadiz, and are represented by the Gorringe Ridge and Coral Patch seamounts. Lithospheric folding probably interacted with the Monchique – Madeira hotspot during the 72 Ma to Recent, NNE – SSW transit. Plume related volcanism is for the first time described on top of the Coral Patch seamount, where nine volcanoes are found by means of bathymetric data. 40Ar-39Ar age of 31.4±1.98 Ma are measured from one rock sample of one of these volcanoes. Analysis on biogenic samples show how the Coral Patch act as a starved offshore seamount since the Chattian. We proposed that compression stress formed lithospheric scale structures playing as a reserved lane for the upwelling of mantle material during the hotspot transit. The interaction between lithospheric folding and the hotspot emplacement can be also responsible for the irregularly spacing, and anomalous alignments, of individual islands and seamounts belonging to the Monchique - Madeira hotspot.

Questo lavoro di ricerca ha come oggetto le architetture religiose, fortificate e civili di epoca bassomedievali conservate in Val Cavallina e sulla sponda occidentale del Sebino nella provincia orientale di Bergamo: questo territorio è privilegiato per la raccolta di dati utili alla definizione della seriazione cronotipologica degli elementi architettonici e dei paramenti murari datati tra XII e XV secolo. La redazione di tavole cronotipologiche è andata oltre l’aspetto tecnico, ma ha ricostruito i fenomeni sociali e politici di questo territorio in epoca bassomedievale: la costruzione dei castelli e delle torri condizionò la nuova rete insediativa dei borghi, definendo nuovi punti di aggregazione. Queste nuove costruzioni sono il riflesso di famiglie aristocrazie che utilizzano l’edilizia come strumento di affermazione di forza economica e potere sociale. L’analisi dei corpi di fabbrica condotto col metodo dell’archeologia dell’architettura ha consentito non solo la definizione delle tecniche edilizie, ma anche sulle dinamiche insediative nella provincia orientale di Bergamo. L’edilizia storica è fondamentale per comprendere i modi dell’abitare e di vivere: l’analisi di questi contesti ha consentito di distinguere specifiche tipologie abitative, e di ragionare sulle modalità occupazionali del territorio in epoca bassomedievale, riconoscendo per le due aree d’indagine peculiarità diverse. / This research is related to late medieval age religious, fortified and civil architecture preserved in Val Cavallina and on the western side of Iseo Lake, in the eastern province of Bergamo: this territory is privileged for the collection of data useful for the definition of the chrono-typological seriation of architectural elements and walls, dating from the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Chrono-typological tablets exceed technical aspects, and reconstruct the social and political appearance of this territory in the late medieval age: the construction of castles and towers conditioned the new settlement of villages, setting new aggregation points. These new buildings are a reflection of aristocracy’s families, who builds as statement of economic and social power strength. The insight of the buildings made with the archeological method allowed the definition of building techniques, and the settlement dynamics in the eastern province of Bergamo. The historic building is crucial to understand the ways to live: the analysis of medieval buildings has allowed distinguishing specific typology of houses and the occupational way to set the territory in the late medieval age; every area has his architectural peculiarities.

The need to consider groundwater and surface water as a single resource has fostered the interest of the scientific community on the interactions between surface water and groundwater. The region below and alongside rivers where surface hydrology and subsurface hydrology concur is the hyporheic zone. This is the region where water exchange determines many biogeochemical and ecological processes of great impact on the functioning of rivers. However, the complex processes taking place in the hyporheic zone require a multidisciplinary approach. The combination of innovative point and distributed techniques originally developed in separated disciplines is of great advantage for the indirect identification of water exchange in the hyporheic zone. Distributed techniques using temperature as a tracer such as fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing can identify the different components of groundwater-surface water interactions based on their spatial and temporal thermal patterns at the sediment-water interface. In particular, groundwater, interflow discharge and local hyporheic exchange flows can be differentiated based on the distinct size, duration and sign of the temperature anomalies. The scale range and resolution of fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing are well complemented by geophysics providing subsurface structures with a similar resolution and scale. Thus, the use of fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing to trace flux patterns supported by the exploration of subsurface structures with geophysics enables spatial and temporal investigation of groundwater-surface water interactions with an unprecedented level of accuracy and resolution. In contrast to the aforementioned methods that can be used for pattern identification at the interface, other methods such as point techniques are required to quantify hyporheic exchange fluxes. In the present PhD thesis, point methods based on hydraulic gradients and thermal profiles are used to quantify hyporheic exchange flows. However, both methods are one-dimensional methods and assume that only vertical flow occurs while the reality is much more complex. The study evaluates the accuracy of the available methods and the factors that impact their reliability. The applied methods allow not only to quantify hyporheic exchange flows but they are also the basis for an interpretation of the sediment layering in the hyporheic zone. For upscaling of the previous results three-dimensional modelling of flow and heat transport in the hyporheic zone combines pattern identification and quantification of fluxes into a single framework. Modelling can evaluate the influence of factors governing groundwater-surface water interactions as well as assess the impact of multiple aspects of model design and calibration of high impact on the reliability of the simulations. But more importantly, this modelling approach enables accurate estimation of water exchange at any location of the domain with unparalleled resolution. Despite the challenges in 3D modelling of the hyporheic zone and in the integration of point and distributed data in models, the benefits should encourage the hyporheic community to adopt an integrative approach comprising from the measurement to the upscaling of hyporheic processes.