ID:
GE407
Duration (hours):
60
CFU:
6
SSD:
GEOLOGIA STRUTTURALE
Located in:
CHIETI
Url:
GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES FOR RISKS, RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT/CORSO GENERICO Year: 1
Year:
2025
Course Catalogue:
Overview
Date/time interval
Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 29/05/2026)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
At the end of the course unit, students will be evaluated on their knowledge of the main methods of investigation used in the field of morphotectonic analysis, and on their ability to discriminate advantages and limitations in relation to the various contexts and different time scales of investigation.
Through the essay they are asked to produce before the oral exam, they will provide feedback on their capacity to apply, in a real case study, the topographic and fluvial analysis techniques explained during the practice lab, interpreting the results in a neotectonic perspective.
Course Prerequisites
The knowledge of GIS (Geographic Information System) at a basic level is strongly recommended
Teaching Methods
The 60-hour course will be delivered through lectures (40 hours) and practical exercises (20 hours).
The lectures will introduce the student to the theoretical aspects of the 'CONTENTS' of the course and to the analysis tools that can be used, on different time scales and in different morphogenetic and morphotectonic contexts.
The practical exercises in the lab class will include exercises in topographic and river analysis in a GIS environment, and basic geomorphic indices computation.
The course includes a 1-2-day field trip aimed at the recognition of clues and landscape features typical in active tectonic contexts.
Assessment Methods
The exam will consist of two components: an oral test (20 points) and a written essay (10 points).
The oral test will cover the topics discussed throughout the course.
The essay will consist of a morphotectonic analysis of a selected study area. Students are expected to apply some of the methodologies introduced during lectures and further developed through practical exercises.
The essay must be submitted to the instructor prior to the oral exam.
Texts
TEXT BOOK:
- Douglas W. Burbank, Robert S. Anderson. Tectonic Geomorphology (Second Edition, 2011). ISBN:9781444338867 |Online ISBN:9781444345063 |DOI:10.1002/9781444345063, Wiley-Blackwell Publisher
Basics concepts from the following text books:
- Alberto Malatesta Geologia e Paleobiologia dell’Era Glaciale - Carocci Ed. (1985) | ISBN-13: 9788843008285
-Mario Panizza. Geomorfologia - Pitagora Ed. (Terza Edizione 2002) | ISBN:8837118902
- Carlo Bartolini & Angelo Peccerillo - I fattori geologici del rilievo - Lezioni di geomorfologia strutturale. Pitagora Editrice Bologna | ISBN 8837112033
Educational material, tutorials and scientific papers provided by the teacher on case studies dealing with the main topics addressed during the course
Contents
The course is aimed at introducing the student to the objectives and the thematics Morphotectonics deals with, following a teaching program which will address the problems raised by the recognition of the Quaternary tectonics clues and the main tools and methods to address them.
Concepts from various disciplines (geomorphology, structural geology, geochronology, and stratigraphy) will be recalled in the context of their application in investigating the competitive relationship between surface processes and tectonics, with the goal of, when possible, differentiating between the two components and their relative rates.
The main geomorphic markers, relative deformation patterns and their use in various morphogenetic contexts will be introduced and described, as well as their response to tectonic activity and/or combination with surface processes driven by the main Quaternary climate changes.
The main (absolute) dating methods useful to provide time constraints of the geomorphic markers will be recalled, and the strategies to infer from them the deformation rates will be exposed. The feedback processes between climate and tectonics, and the relationships between uplift- and erosion/denudation rates, as well as the methodologies used to calculate them, will be described together with notes on the physics of the phenomena that rule them.
The landscape evolution led by the tectonic 'forcing', will be studied at different time scales as a consequence of the different responses to the deformation events, and depending they belong to more impulsive categories (at Holocene scale) or to multiple cycles of interaction between deformation and erosion processes (Quaternary).
Finally, the theoretical aspects behind the quantitative analysis of the river’s erosion processes and of longitudinal profiles will be addressed, together with the fluvial pattern's interaction with active tectonics and the deriving transients. The concepts on the geomorphic markers introduced at the beginning of the course, and the geomorphic indices used to identify clues of active tectonics, will be re-interpreted in a longer-term deformation context, in order to consider averaged deformation rates which take into account even erosion processes induced by the number of climatic/eustatic fluctuations occurred in the Quaternary.
Course Language
Italian
More information
Course attendance is strongly recommended. Student office hours: Friday, 10:00–12:00 a.m.
Degrees
Degrees
GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES FOR RISKS, RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Master’s Degree
2 years
No Results Found