PRIN 2008
Leader Dr Giovanni ZanchettaReconstruction of sea-level, palaeoenvironments and palaeoclimate during the Middle-Late Pleistocene and Holocene (ca the last 700 ka) over selected areas of the Patagonian coast (Argentina): an attempt to evaluate future climatic scenarios.
This project improves our knowledge in the field of basic sciences. It is focused on the study of the effects of sea-level and climatic changes on the coastal environment through palaegeographic, palaeoecological, palaeobiogeographical, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions over a selected sector of the Argentinean Patagonia coast (Northern part of Gulf San Jorge) using geomorphological, stratigraphic, paleontological and geochemical methods.
The main aims of the project:
- correlation of raised marine deposits with the transitional-continental-related deposits in order to appreciate the relationship between sea-level variations and the changes and impact on coastal and continental depositional systems
- Sedimentological, palaeocological and geochemical studies to supply fundamental information of past climate condition associated to these depositional systems.
- to disentangle the different roles of the eustatic component (i.e. variations of general ocean volume due to glaciation-deglaciation periods), local tectonics and the effects of the glacial isostatic component.
- to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of areas potentially singled out as geosites for future preservation and potentially useful for development of sustainable resources like compatible tourism
