ABSTRACTS / RESUMES - Comitato Glaciologico Italiano

streams related to periglacial solifluction have been described
for sites at altitudes above 1,500 m a.s.I.
This paper provides a brief overview of the range of deposits
encountered in the Western Cape mountains, while
more detailed morphological and sedimentological descriptions
are presented for the periglacial slope deposits
at Matroosberg (2,249 m a.s.l.). Near the summit, extensively
shattered bedrock is found closely related to several
broad stone-banked terraces, over two hundred metres
long, up to 40 m wide and with openwork boulder fronts
up to 8 m high. Clast sorting and orientation are described.
With an increase in slope angles at 1,900 m a.s.I. the
slope cover grades into broad stripes of alternating coarse
and less coarse, sorted material parallel to the maximum
gradient. Widths of the zones of coarse material increase
from 5 m to over 20 m over a distance of more than 50 m
in downslope direction. Here they merge into openwork
block deposits several tens of metres long and wide.
The assemblage of relict periglacial landforms described
for this area closely resemble the lobate stone-banked terraces
studied by Benedict (1970, 1976) in the Colorado
Front Range. As these landiorms appear to be associated
with the most- severe climatic conditions during the Late
Quaternary in these mountains, their paleoclimatic significance
is evaluated.
FEDERICO BOENZI, MASSIMO CALDARA
& LUIGI PENNETTA
The morphostructural characters of the substrate
of the «Tavoliere di Puglia» (Southern Italy)
Dipartimento di Geologia e Geofisica, Universita di Bari,
via Orabona 4,70125 Bari, Italy
The «Tavoliere di Puglia», is the second Italian plain for
extension. It coincides with the part of the Adriatic Foredeep
which is delimited by the Apennine Chain and Apulian
Foreland, more precisely corresponds to the area surrounded
by the Daunia Mounts, Gargano Promontory and
Murge Hills. The geological history of this area could be
summarized as follows:
- sedimentation of the Mesozoic-Paleogenic carbonate
platform;
- fragmentation of the Apulian plate with the consequent
formation of the foredeep beginning from Miocene;
- filling of this subsident trough during the Plio-Pleistocene
(Bradanic cycle);
- regional rising with glacioeustatic fluctuation of sealevel
followed by an important phase of mesopleistocenic-holocenic
terraces.
The aim of this study is to reconstruct the top of the carbonatic
substratum and to individuate the main morpho-tectonic
structures. For this purpose the geological outcrops
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of the mesozoic mudstone of the perimurgian and perigarganic
areas have been used together with the stratigraphy
of the oil wells on the border of the Apennine Chain and
the unpublished information given by the holes for water
searching drilled in the plain.
The first information are summarized into a countourn
map and shows that the Tavoliere can be divided into three
zones.
The Southern zone, between the Murge and Cervaro
Stream, corresponds to a graben delimited by two important
tectonic lineations. The graben, SW-NE orientated, is
complicated with minor trasversal structures dipping
forwards the Apennine Chain.
The Central zone is perfectly contained between the Dauno
Subapennine and the Gargano Promontory. It corresponds
to a big semigraben which has apennine alignment
dipping SW complicated with a series of host and graben.
The Northern zone is divided from the central one by the
Torre Mileto-Diga di Occhito Fault. It corresponds to a semigraben
dipping into the Adriatic Sea with secondary E­
Wand NE-SW structures and also N -5 corresponding to
the Fortore Fault.
These structure have been hidden in the surface by mesopleistocenic-holocenic
deposits; their presence, however,
conditions the course of the most important rivers in the
Tavoliere. A good example can be given by the rivers Fortore,
Cervaro and Ofanto which have an antiapenninic
orientation and the Candelaro River flowing close to the
Gargano Massif with a direction parallel to the Apennine
Chain.
FEDERICO BOENZI, MASSIMO CALDARA
& LUIGI PENNETTA
The Quaternary terracing phases of the
«Tavoliere di Puglia» (Southern Italy)
Dipartimento di Geologia e Geofisica, Universita di Bari,
via Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy
The «Tavoliere di Puglia», is the widest plain of Italy second
only to the plain of the Po river. It corresponds to
the area limited to the West by the Mounts of the Daunia
(Apennine Chain), to the South by the Murge Highland
(Apulian Foreland) and to the North and East by the
Adriatic sea and it surrounds the southern border of the
Gargano Massif. From a structural point of view, the Tavoliere
was a part of the subsident trough, that was formed,
starting from the Lower Pliocene until Lower Pleistocene,
and was filled by the sediments of the Bradanic
Cycle. The regressive part of this cycle consists of the
«Argille subappennine», «Sabbie di Monte Marano» and
«Conglomerate di Irsina» Formations.
After the basin filling, some terracing phases linked both
to glacio-eustatic and discontinuous uplifting phenomena