Fausto Pazzaglia

Pazzaglia F. et al., The Pleistocene calcareous tufa of Santa Sabina (Perugia, central Italy): stratigraphy, palynology and vertebrate paleontology. (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2011) An integrated sedimentological, geochronological, paleontological (mammal fauna) and palynological study was carried out on the calcareous tufa of Santa Sabina, outcropping in the Ellera basin (Perugia, central Italy). Previous U/Th datings on the investigated sections provided an absolute age of 115±8 ka as confirmed by the vertebrate fauna which could be biochronologically referred to the early-middle Aurelian Mammal Age. It corresponds to the MIS 5e, and to the last inter-glacial period (Eemian) characterised by wet and warm climate conditions suitable for calcareous tufa depositon. RIASSUNTO: Pazzaglia F. et al., I "calcareous tufa" pleistocenici di Santa Sabina (Perugia, Italia centrale): stratigrafia, palinologia e paleontologia a vertebrati. (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2011) Lo studio integrato sedimen...

Most of the research on fossil mammals from Umbria (central Italy) has been carried out in the southwestern branch of the Tiber basin, due to its paleontological richness. This portion of the basin extends from Perugia to Terni and corresponds to a well-defined half-graben filled with fluvial-lacustrine deposits. The paleontological sample presented here was discovered in a sand and gravel quarry at Podere San Lorenzo, East of the town of Deruta. The stratigraphic succession exposed in the quarry is no longer visible, but we describe here a new outcrop (Palazzone), which is not far from Podere San Lorenzo and shows comparable facies associations. The two successions were deposited in a fluvial environment characterized by an average reduction of the hydrodynamic energy from the bottom upwards. They are referred to the Early Pleistocene Santa Maria di Ciciliano Subsyntheme (Madonna dei Bagni Lithofacies). Large mammal remains are attributed to Mammuthus cf. meridionalis (Nesti, 1825)...

This paper is concerned with the chronological and cultural framework of the peopling of Lake Trasimeno and the surrounding territories during Pre-Protohistory, with special focus on the numerous and interesting materials (not yet published) from the Bellucci and the Calzoni Collections at the National Archaeological Museum of Perugia. These materials cover a very broad time range (Palaeolithic and Neo-Eneolithic) represented only partially or not at all by the results of modern investigations. In addition the Bellucci Collection contains prestigious objects, including an assemblage of arrowheads and stone polished axes, which can provide meaningful information about raw material circulation routes and largescale exchanges as well as the cult-ritual behaviour of Neo-Eneolithic groups. Although geological studies concerning the Trasimeno basin are, particularly for the more recent periods (Upper Pleistocene and Holocene), still preliminary, an attempt at intertwining archaeological data with the geomorphologiacal ones has been carried out in order to provide a framework of each phase within its palaeoenvironmental context

Pazzaglia F. et al., The Pleistocene calcareous tufa of Santa Sabina (Perugia, central Italy): stratigraphy, palynology and vertebrate paleontology. (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2011) An integrated sedimentological, geochronological, paleontological (mammal fauna) and palynological study was carried out on the calcareous tufa of Santa Sabina, outcropping in the Ellera basin (Perugia, central Italy). Previous U/Th datings on the investigated sections provided an absolute age of 115±8 ka as confirmed by the vertebrate fauna which could be biochronologically referred to the early-middle Aurelian Mammal Age. It corresponds to the MIS 5e, and to the last interglacial period (Eemian) characterised by wet and warm climate conditions suitable for calcareous tufa depositon. RIASSUNTO: Pazzaglia F. et al., I “calcareous tufa” pleistocenici di Santa Sabina (Perugia, Italia centrale): stratigrafia, palinologia e paleontologia a vertebrati. (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2011) Lo studio integrato sedimentologico, g...

Tra i bacini di acque dolci i più adatti agli studi paleoclimatici sono quelli chiusi e in particolare quelli poco profondi. Ogni variazione nei sedimenti sul fondo di questi laghi è dovuta a variazioni paleoambientali dell'area circostante, a loro volta innescate dalle modificazioni del clima. Il Lago Trasimeno è perfetto da questo punto vista. Il suo bacino imbrifero ha una superficie ridotta rispetto a quella dello specchio d'acqua (383 km 2 contro 124 km 2 della superficie lacustre) e praticamente coincide con il bacino idrogeologico. Nel bacino imbrifero affiorano litotipi a bassa permeabilità, per cui è alimentato solamente dalle piogge che cadono al suo interno. Ciò comporta forti oscillazioni a scala pluriennale ed annuale de livello del lago, strettamente legate alla variazione degli apporti meteorici e quindi alle condizioni climatiche (Dragoni, 2004). Lo studio dei sedimenti (granulometrie, strutture sedimentarie, variazioni composizionali) è di fondamentale impor...

The Lake Trasimeno (Umbria, Central Italy) is a meso-eutrophic, shallow (<6 m deep) but large basin (~120 km 2) characterized by a water balance that is responding to rainfall regime (Dragoni, 2004). Thus, the physicochemical behavior of Lake Trasimeno is strongly influenced by climatic variations (Ludovisi & Gaino, 2010). The lake is located between two extensional basins, the Valdichiana and the Valtiberina to the west and east, respectively. Lacustrine sedimentation started as early as the Early Pleistocene while the lake basin was evolving from a lateral branch of the Valdichiana basin. Seismic reflection data (Gasperini et al., 2010) show an almost 600 m thick sedimentary infill overlying a deeply eroded Miocene bedrock. It provides an exceptional record of continuous lake level changes and, thus, a climatic reconstruction for central Italy. A175 m long core was retrieved by the Regione Umbria Geological Survey within the framework of a multidisciplinary project along the so...

Nell'ambito di un progetto multidisciplinare, finanziato dalla Regione Umbria, che ha lo scopo di ricostruire le variazioni ambientali e climatiche avvenute nel corso del Pleistocene nell'area del Lago Trasimeno, è stato realizzato un sondaggio profondo di 175 m, a carotaggio continuo. Il Lago Trasimeno, nel corso della sua evoluzione pliocenico-quaternaria, è stato caratterizzato da una subsidenza piuttosto continua, permettendo la registrazione degli eventi geologici che si sono susseguiti nel tempo e rendendolo pertanto un sito potenzialmente interessante per lo studio di un record temporale piuttosto lungo e continuo. In queste prime fasi di studio lo scopo è stato quello di ricostruire le maggiori variazioni vegetazionali che hanno interessato l'areale intorno al lago e di identificare i contributi relativi dalle varie sorgenti di detrito vegetale, al bacino lacustre. Lo studio della sostanza organica ha permesso da un lato di individuare le sorgenti del detrito veg...

ABSTRACT In extending areas undergoing regional tectonic uplift, the persistence of subsidence at a normal-fault hanging-wall depends on the competition between regional and local tectonic effects. When regional uplift exceeds the subsidence of the hanging-wall block, denudation prevails at both the hanging-wall and the foot-wall. When local tectonic subsidence exceeds regional uplift, sedimentation occurs over the hanging-wall block, supplied by foot-wall erosion. We analyzed a Pliocene–Quaternary continental basin, currently crossed by the Tiber River in Italy. The tectono-sedimentary evolution of the basin developed at the hanging-wall of a regional low-angle extensional detachment, the Alto Tiberina Fault, in the axial region of the Northern Apennines of Italy. This area is affected by regional uplift on the order of 0.5–1.0 mm/yr. The present-day activity of the fault is revealed by both microseismicity and geodetic (GPS) data. We investigated the mid- (10–100 ka) and long-term (0.5–3.0 Ma) evolution of the three depocenters by studying the continental Pleistocene succession infilling the basin as well as fluvial terraces and higher paleosurfaces carved into the Pleistocene deposits. By using surficial geologic data and an interpretation of a set of seismic reflection profiles, we show that the three depocenters experienced a fairly similar evolution during the Pliocene–Early Pleistocene, when a 1000-m-thick continental succession was deposited. On the contrary, geomorphological observations indicate that, at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, a switch occurred in the evolution of the three depocenters. In the northernmost Sansepolcro sub-basin, bounding normal faults are active and hanging-wall subsidence outpaces regional uplift. Concurrently, in the Umbertide and Ponte Pattoli sub-basins uplift dominates over the hanging-wall subsidence, promoting river incision and exhumation of the Pleistocene deposits. For these two depocenters, by means of terrace-river correlations, we estimate that the incision rate is ∼0.3–0.35 mm/yr, suggesting a maximum tectonic subsidence of 0.2 mm/yr. The identification of a heterogeneous uplift pattern along the hanging-wall of the Alto Tiberina Fault, driven by different displacement rates of its fault splays, allowed us to characterize fault segments with different activities and, possibly, different seismic behaviors.