Volume of Abstracts - Università degli Studi di Milano

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5 th Int. Workshop on Ice Caves (IWIC – V) Barzio (LC), Valsassina, Grigna and Milano, September 16 – 23, 2012 Volume of Abstracts ICE CAVES SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH HISTORY: FROM LEONARDO DA VINCI TO THE END OF 1800 Turri S. 1 , Bini A. 2 & Maggi V. 3 1 GeoSFerA Studio Associato di Geologia, Via Rossini 18, 21100 Varese, Italy 2 Dept. of Earth Sciences “Ardito Desio”, University of Milano. Via Mangiagalli 34, 20133 Milan, Italy 3 Environmental and Territorial Sciences Dept., University of Milano-Bicocca. P.zza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milan, Italy One of the first descriptive notes of ice caves appeared in the note books of Leonardo da Vinci. The occurrence of hypogean ice deposits has always attracted famous scientists and illustrious travellers, which usually were informed by shepherds or local inhabitants, that rushed with curiosity to the ice caves to describe and to explain the hypogean glacial phenomena. In this work, references of some of the most outstanding observations between the period of Leonardo da Vinci and the end of 1800 A.D. are cited. Stenone (1671) wrote two letters after his visits to two ice caves in the Northern Italy; they are reported here in their original versions. ICE CAVES IN CENTRAL ITALY Menichetti M. 1,2 , Salvatori F. 2 & Poderini L. 2 1 Università di Urbino – Disteva; 2 Centro Escursionistico Naturalistico Speleologico Costacciaro (PG) In Abruzzo National Park in Central Italy, extensive outcrops of Mesozoic carbonate sequence display many superficial karst features with doline fields and polje associated with a few caves, shafts and resurgences. The region is at an altitude of between 1500 and 1900 m above sea level and is covered by deciduous mesophile woods and montane grasslands in the highest area. The town of Pescasseroli (altitude 1150 m), located a few km SE of the karstic area, is characterized by a temperate cold climate (Köppen type D) with an annual average temperature of +8°C, rainfall of 1577 mm/y, an average of 131 icy days/y and a snow cover that persists for many months. Several caves in the region, locally called “Nevera” (snow reserve), preserve ice deposits of a few tens of cubic meters and, being located at a lat of 42°N, probably represent the southernmost ice caves in Europe. These caves are large shafts a few tens of meters deep with branches and galleries extending for a hundred meters. Important underground air fluxes 15
5 th Int. Workshop on Ice Caves (IWIC – V) Barzio (LC), Valsassina, Grigna and Milano, September 16 – 23, 2012 Volume of Abstracts have been detected in many passages, with opposite seasonal directions and with discharge that can reach cubic meters/sec. The ice is localized close to the cave entrance and is the result of the freezing of seepage water and accumulation of snow during the winter season. The ice covers the cave floor and consists of roughly laminated layers deriving from melting and refreezing processes reflecting the annual cycle of mass variations. The ice contains a lot of organic matter, mainly leafs, that during the summer season form a carpet of a few centimetres thick close to the cave entrance that prevents the ice melting. In order to study the cave microclimates, an air temperature monitoring system was recently installed inside the caves and integrated with measurements of climatic parameters at the surface. The temperature inside the caves varies from a maximum of +2,5°C in the summer season to a minimum of -10 °C in the winter. The record data show near constant values during the summer and significant variations in the winter time. The shift is strictly linked to the external temperature: below +2,5°C the caves breathe in, introducing freezing winter air, while above such temperature, the air flux blows out of the cave. The cold air coming from the deeper part of the cave, where the temperature is a constant +2,5°C, is controlled by heat exchange with the cave walls and groundwater. These air fluxes permit the seepage water to freeze and snow to accumulate inside the cave, and maintain the ice volume in a dynamic equilibrium during the warm season. Historical information shows that over the last decades the ice volume has markedly decreased. ICE CAVE RESEARCH - FROM A PHENOMENON TO MODERN RESEARCH Grebe C. 1 & Pflitsch A. 1 1 Working Group Cave & Subway Climatology, Geography Department, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150 / Gebäude NA, 44780 Bochum, Germany (christiane_grebe@gmx.de, andreas.pflitsch@rub.de) The phenomenon ice caves was known long before modern science started to investigate this unique climate archive. Due to the amount of information that was collected during the last years we will present an overview of the history of ice cave research over the last centuries. Beside the historical analysis the main focus of this work was to make unknown historical publications available and to examine them regarding their information content useful for current scientific research. Most of the ice cave publications until the 19th century had a predominant descriptive character, however they provide information about historical ice cave sites 16
Page 2 and 3: IWIC - V 5 th INTERNATIONAL WORKSHO
Page 4: President 5 th Int. Workshop on Ice
Page 7 and 8: 5 th Int. Workshop on Ice Caves (IW
Page 13 and 14: Dear Participants, we are very plea
Page 46: POSTER PRESENTATIONS
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