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Single discipline educational activity
Course Sheet Academic Year of enrolment:
Professor and Collaborators:
Hours of classroom activity:
Prerequisites:
The knowledge of GIS (Geographic Information System) at a basic level is strongly recommended
Objectives Contents The course is aimed at introducing the student to the objectives and thematics the 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 pertaining to various disciplines (geomorphology, structural geology, geochronology, stratigraphy) will be recalled in the perspective of their use in investigating the competitive relationship between surface processes and tectonics in order to attain, when possible, to differentiate the two components and 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.
Extended Syllabus 1) BASICS OF STRUCTURAL GEOMORPHOLOGY - Morphoselection and Morphotectonics; objectives of the Morphotectonics and different timescale investigations; landscape evolution models and possible limitations;
2) GEOMORPHIC MARKERS - Planar geomorphic markers (marine and river terraces, beaches, marine and lacustrine shorelines, deltas, alluvial fans, erosional surfaces). Linear geomorphic markers (rivers, ridge crests and glacial moraines);
3) MAIN DATING METHODS used on different timescales of morphotectonics investigation - Relative dating methods: pedogenic indicators; lichenometry. Absolute dating methods: dendrochronology; radiocarbon dating; U/Th dating, OSL, Cosmogenic Radionuclides Dating (in situ CRNs);
4) EROSION AND UPLIFT RATES - Definitions and conceptual framework; erosion rates computation based on different types of constraints (tectonic, structural, topographic, isotopic interpretations); river erosion; erosion rates from cosmogenic radionuclide dating techniques and radiometric dating. Uplift rates computation (from marine terraces, stratigraphic constraints, fluvial longitudinal profiles);
5) LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION AT THE HOLOCENE DEFORMATION SCALE - Theoretical concepts underlying river erosion and river equilibrium profiles (power-law); assumptions and limits of application; SL-index; concavity index; normalized channel steepness index; transient morphologies (knickpoints) and their migration patterns; deformation/migration of the river network in active tectonic contexts and modifications in the depositional conditions: real cases and laboratory experiments;
6) LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION AT THE QUATERNARY DEFORMATION SCALE - planar markers (marine and river terraces) used for long-term uplift rates estimation; topographic relief as tectonic indicators (swath profiles, local relief, residual relief). The concept of steady-state topography. Morphotectonic evolution and interaction of drainage basins with extensional, compressive and transcurrent fault systems.
Recommended Bibliography TEXT BOOK:
-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
Methods of Provision 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.
Evaluation methods Verification of learning:
The exam will take place in two steps: an oral test (20 points) and the production of an essay (10 points).
The paper will be represented by the morphotectonic analysis of a study area; the student will have to apply part of the methodologies introduced during the lectures and applied more in detail in the practical exercises.
The essay must be delivered to the teacher in advance with respect to the oral test.
Contacts/More Information Course attendance is strongly recommended
