Geologic Itineray n. 2
Stop 1 - Hauynofiro in Melfi
North of the Norman Castle of Melfi, that rises up on the top of the lavish slab of hauynofiro, an abandoned and reachable quarry is very visible. On the walls of the quarry known as ‘the black stones quarry’, there are laves having the typical cooling columnar flawlessness settled approximately in the end of the volcano’s activity.
Stop 2 - S. Antonio Quarry
The quarry is situated in the northern periphery of the inhabited area. Along the 10-15 metre-high walls, two of the volcano-stratigraphic units can be observed from various angles. A succession of piroclastic flowed and fallen layers can be observed. A series of canalizations filled up of products of the same unit are moreover visible.
Stop 3 - Monticchio Lakes
Monticchio Lakes are two small lakes lodged into a wide calderic depression situated on the south-western side of the volcanic building. From the eastern side it is possible to see the classic frustum-conical shape of the volcano with slopes having concave profiles furrowed by deep cuts with approximately radial symmetry, whereas the more elevated part is very articulated for a coalescence of summital craters. Both the lakes, the Big Lake and the Small Lake, of sub-elliptic shape with steep and symmetrical walls in depth, show clearly their craterous origin, whose morphology is typical of the ‘maar’.
Stop 4 - San Fele Anticline
The stop is located in Toppo Airile. Eastwards it is possible to admire the external side of San Fele anticline. It is the superficial expression of a large structure that reaches a depth of more than 5000 metres and it is constituted exclusively by a rhythmic repetition of ‘lagonegresi’ units tectonically overlapped. Similar structures constitute a good part of the mountainous relieves such as San Fele ridge, Picerno’s Li Foy Mountain , the Sant Enoc-Calderosa Mountain group and Volturino Mountain in the Agri Valley.
Stop 5 - Valle della Sete (Muro Lucano)
This valley is embedded on the four sides inside carbonate relieves and it develops a particularly warm and little exposed to the winds microclimate in summer. The valley is filled up by colluvial dregs and gaps of carbonate slope characterized by an highest permeability because of which the meteoric waters are infiltrated in the subsoil, without having the possibility to develop a superficial hydrographical reticulum. Along the sides of the depression, mirrors of fault that put into contact carbonates with slope’s detritus produced by themselves emerge. Along these tectonic surfaces, easiest to identify and visible as long sub-vertical walls of cliff, streaks which witness the movements are preserved.
Stop 6 - Carbonatic ‘Olistoliti’ and forehead of the Apennine Platform
The stop is reached through the Monte Nuovo crossroad on the communal street towards the Toppo di Castelgrande observatory. Eastwards, from this panoramic point, we can observe the ridge of Mountain Giani that constitutes the morpho-structural element of the chain occupying the more elevated position (Carbonate Apennine Platform). The carbonate cliffs whose mountain is constituted have got an advanced thickness of above 1000 metres and they dip with an angle of approximately 50 degrees below the clayey ‘sicilidi’ units. Northerly the undulation of originally horizontal carbonate layers and their immersion under the topographical surface are a strongly impressive element. The Apennine Platform is present in subsoil in all the area between Pescopagano and San Fele. Its position is evidenced on the surface by a continue streak of carbonate ‘olistoliti’ oriented in E-W, whose conspicuous portion we observe in this stop.
Geologic Itineraries
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