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The Al-Hajar Mountains (Northern Sultanate of Oman) characterise the north-eastern part of the Arabian Plate and exhibit a complex tectonic history. They formed during the overthrusting of the Semail Ophiolite and the slope-basin sedimentary sequences over autochthonous sedimentary cover and metamorphic units. The post-orogenic history is characterised by extension and subsequent shortening, forming a series of regional-wide anticlines. The Jebel Akhdar dome, in the central Al-Hajar Mountains, is one of these anticlines; it consists of a pre-Permian basement and Permian to Late Cretaceous carbonate platforms. Along the southern flank of the anticline, the Jebel Akhdar Mesozoic shallow-water limestone is deeply cut into a network of narrow and sometimes meandering canyons. The combination of remote sensing, morphometry, field survey and structural analysis is the multidisciplinary approach used to explore the evolution of canyons and understand the processes that oversaw their deep incision. We identified a group of joint and fault sets, morphostructural lineaments and inactive karst features (both in the epikarst and in the hypokarst) at various scales and evidence for canyons overdeepening respect to the present-day watershed basins. Our reconstruction suggests the ancestral action of karst dissolution along the many structural weaknesses available along the phreatic zone. This led to the formation of a complex network of conduits, later exhumed and occasionally reworked by fluvial processes and linear erosion, whose dynamic was tuned by pre-Quaternary and Quaternary climatic changes.

Archaeological sequences and landscapes preserve evidence of the complex relationship between human communities and climatic/environmental changes occurred in the Quaternary. In this perspective, archaeological sediments and landscapes are proxy data for past ecosystems evolution, as much as for changes in land use, exploitation of natural resources, and human behavior. Most of the latter can be detected and explored with a geoarchaeological approach, using the tools and methods offered by Earth Sciences. For that reason, accurate sampling during the excavation of archaeological sites allows to increase the number and quality information useful to reconstruct the formation of an archaeological sequence, its preservation, and human activities. What can we do when archaeological excavations were carried out before the application of methods from the Earth Sciences? How can we gather information from residual strips or archaeological sediments? The SPHeritage Project (MUR grant: FIRS2019_00040, P.I.: M. Pappalardo) is coping with this challenging task reinvestigating the Balzi Rossi archaeological area (Western Liguria, Northern Italy). This area represents a key site for the reconstruction of how human populations have responded to Pleistocene environmental changes and sea-level variations since the Middle Pleistocene. Local anthropogenic cave sequences have been excavated since the half of the XIX century; unfortunately, the geological processes in charge of the formation of such deposits have been only occasionally considered. As most of the local archaeological sequences were removed, we are combining the analyses of the remnants of strips of anthropogenic sediments still preserved inside local rock shelters as much as sediment samples preserved in museums. Moreover, our geomorphological survey identified new sedimentary sequences preserving information on relative sea level changes, better constraining the time and steps of climate change, sea-level oscillations, and human settlements. Our results confirm that this approach is an effective tool to reconstruct the formative processes of anthropogenic sequences excavated in the past, thus expanding our possibility of understanding the climate-environment-human nexus.

High mountain environments and especially proglacial systems, which are areas defined by subtracting modern glacier outlines from Little Ice Age (LIA) limits, are among the most dynamic geomorphic contexts on Earth. They are extremely sensitive to ongoing climate change and its consequences are especially intense – yet relatively poorly investigated – at middle-low latitudes, as in the case of the circum-Mediterranean mountainous contexts. This area (excluding the Alps) encompasses recently deglaciated ground from the borders of the Mediterranean Sea and comprises more than hundred ice bodies dramatically receding since their LIA extension. Most of these glaciers are completely disappeared leaving extensive proglacial areas, which differs from those described in the Alps for the timing and types of ongoing processes. Here, we present and discuss the unique characteristics of such dynamic proglacial contexts, focusing on recently deglaciated high mountain areas of Southeast Turkey that are affected by fast geomorphological evolution tuned by their specific climatic and geological settings. We compare two areas differing for climatic, structural, and lithological settings: i) the Mount Ararat/Ağrı Dağı (5137 m a.s.l.), a stratovolcano, and ii) the Cilo mountain range (up to 4116 m a.s.l.), characterized by a limestone bedrock. Since the LIA, the two areas underwent different trajectories of evolution and different rates of geomorphic processes. High-resolution satellite data from Pleiades and SPOT 6 platforms permit to investigate the overprint of specific local factors (volcanism, tectonic, and topography) on climate-driven surface evolution explains the specific evolution of each proglacial area.

Located along the Tigris River in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), the Mosul Dam reservoir is the second biggest dam of the Near East, and represents an important water storage for local human activities. The Dam was built between 1981 and 1988 north of the village of Eski Mosul; along this part of the Tigris River several archaeological sites were inundated. Analysis of historical images derived from Declassified Corona satellite acquired between December 1967 and August 1968 reveals seasonal changes of the Tigris riverbed, shifting across the hydrological year from meandering to anastomosing. The geomorphological mapping was carried out on the December 1967 and. in August 1968, Corona images were taken, in order to estimate the modification of several fluvial geomorphological elements such as floodplain and point, middle and longitudinal bars. Here, such evidence is compared with Landsat data collected between the 1990ies and today, in order to detect the first phases of filling of the basin and the control of inherited Tigris channel belt over the reservoir. Moreover, we also noticed an influence of the ancient Tigris course on is recent insertion into the lake. Our work permitted to reconstruct the ancient fluvial landscape below the Mosul Dam Lake, and its evolution in response to seasonal variation of the discharge.

The necessity of sustainable development for landscapes has emerged as an important theme in recent decades. Moreover, past landscape reconstruction enables a better understanding of human resilience to climatic and environmental changes in different periods and locations, and illustrates examples of sustainable development in the past. Free and open-source (FOSS) datasets of satellite imagery offer considerable opportunities for landscape heritage stakeholders both for recording and monitoring activities. In this research, a completely FOSS-cloud procedure to enhance the detection of palaeo-landscape features is presented. Sentinel - 2 satellite imagery has been retrieved in the Google Earth Engine dataset collection and analysed through a Python script code realized in Google Colaboratory. A multi-temporal approach has been adopted to investigate the potential of satellite imagery to detect buried features along with Spectral Index (i.e., RGB, False Short Wave Infrared Colour and Bare Soil Index) and Spectral Decomposition analysis (i.e., Hue, Saturation and Value, Tasselled Cap Transformation and Principal Component Analysis). This procedure has been tested in the Po Plain (Northern Italy), chosen because it is characterized by human-landscape interaction since the Mid-Holocene. Thanks to its complex settlement and land-management history, the Po Plain represents an ideal laboratory to assess the potentiality of satellite imagery to enhance riverscapes’ palaeo-features. The outputs obtained can be visualized directly in the Google Colaboratory browser or downloaded via Google Drive for further graphical applications or spatial analysis. The buried features detected have been checked through the available geomorphological and archaeological literature; published case studies interpreting the occurrence of buried features served as a benchmark to validate the script code developed. This research represents one of the first applications of the GEE Python API in landscape studies. The main advantages of this procedure consist of: i) being FOSS, all the software used here are open-licensed; ii) working in cloud, no powerful hardware is necessary to run the script code; iii) high adaptability, changing the ROI is possible to calculate SI and SD outputs for any area of the world; iv) very basic coding skills are required to adapt the code to a ROI with different environmental characteristics. The development of FOSS-cloud procedures could support the identification, conservation and management of cultural and natural heritage anywhere around the world. In remote areas or where local heritage is threatened as a result of political instability, climate change or other factors, FOSS-cloud protocols can facilitate the application of new scientific methods and enable the dissemination of and access to scientific information.

Monumental funerary landscapes are paramount representations of the relationship between environment and superstructural human behavior. Their formation sometimes requires millennia and they cover wide territories, often adding up to complex palimpsests of monuments belonging to different time periods. In this regard, the funerary landscape of the semi-arid foothill region of Kassala (Eastern Sudan) represents a solid example. Therein, a comprehensive geoarchaeological investigation conducted by means of field survey and remote sensing allowed the creation of a regional geomorphological base-map and a dataset of funerary monuments. The latter comprises several thousand raised stone-built tombs spanning from the early first millennium AD clusters of tumuli (belonging to the pan-African traditions) to regionally exclusive variants of medieval Islamic funerary architecture (qubbas). Funerary monuments are found as eye-catching scatters of hundreds of elements along the foothills of the many rocky outcrops dotting the pediplain of the western periphery of the Eritrean Highlands. In this study, the two categories of monuments were not considered as separate burialscapes, but rather examined as a unique, diachronic funerary landscape in its relationship with the geological and geomorphological settings and constraints. Point Pattern Analysis (PPA) was employed to determine the main environmental drivers of their locations on a regional scale, as well as to assess the existence of superstructural factors acting on their aggregation at the local scale. Our results strongly suggest the presence of a geological/environmental/societal synthesis underlying the choice of monuments’ location: at the regional scale, the pattern follows a precise set of rules residing in the concomitant presence of stable, gently rolling slopes and available metamorphic rock slabs; at the local scale, the clustering is heavily conditioned by superstructural dynamics that most likely reside in kinship and collective social memory of local Beja people. We suggest that the creation of the funerary landscape of Eastern Sudan is the result of a repeated and well coded social behavior of the Beja people, semi-nomadic cattle breeders known to have inhabited the region since “time immemorial”. Despite their mobile lifestyle and cultural contact with other North African and Arabic cultures, the monumental palimpsest portrays how the funerary habits of this millennia-old society persisted almost undisturbed, valuing location and kinship over external influences.

Quaternary loess deposits and complex pedosequences developed on wind-blown silt as parent material are very powerful palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental indicators allowing the reconstruction of glacial/interglacial cycles. For this relevant scientific value, loess outcrops are gaining great attention in the framework of geoheritage valorisation. Loess sequences are distributed along wide latitudinal ranges in both the Boreal and Austral Hemispheres, but they are less frequent if compared to other kinds of Quaternary sediments, and often characterized by a hotspot-like distributions. They are, hence, key-points in geodiversity assessment at basin-scale. Strategies balancing geoconservation and promotion are hence required, and they should be based on the assessment of sites specific values and threats sites may undergo. Loess sequences, in fact, are geosites of stratigraphic interest and geomorphosites that may suffer geomorphic processes (e.g., pedogenesis, linear erosion, tectonics, slope deformation and erosion) threatening their existence. The same processes, at the meantime, are generating spectacular landscapes. Besides the most famous Chinese loess plateau, the North and South American loess basins, and the central Eurasian loess belt, several other minor loess basins are distributed in the world. Among these areas, we can consider the Mediterranean loess areas, and especially the Upper Pleistocene Po Plain Loess Basin of Northern Italy. The latter includes several loess/paleosols outcrops displaying complex pedosequences formed under contrasting Pleistocene pedoclimatic settings, recording recent tectonic activity between the foreland of the Alpine and Apennine ranges (i.e., site-scale geodiversity), and preserving open-air Palaeolithic archaeological sites (i.e., cultural value). After examining the global values of and the potential threats to loess geosites, as proposed in the current literature, a detailed analysis on the potentialities (in terms of scientific features, values, threats, geoconservation, and promotion strategies) of a selection of loess sites from the Po Plain Loess Basin is proposed. The quantification of the values of the geosites is performed considering the global value (i.e. scientific and additional values) of loess-bearing sites and the potential for use, according to a methodology based on a database, already tested in similar thematic contexts. In particular, this methodology implies the geodiversity assessment at site-scale, and this is particularly relevant for loess sites. Finally, for each locality, tips for enhancing Italian loess sites through promotion and geoconservation are provided.

The Terramare civilization included hundreds of banked and moated villages, located in the alluvial plain of the Po River of northern Italy, and developed between the Middle and the Recent Bronze Ages (XVI-XII cent. BC). This civilization lasted for over 500 years, collapsing at around 1150 years BC, in a period marked by a great societal disruptionin the Mediterranean area. The timing and modalities of the collapse of the Terramare Bronze Age culture are widely debated, and a combined geoarchaeological and palaeoclimatic investigation – the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project –is shading new light on this enigma. The Terramare economy was based upon cereal farming, herding, and metallurgy; settlements were also sustained by a well-developed system for the management of water and abundant wood resources. They also established a wide network of commercial exchange between continental Europe and the Mediterranean region.The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project investigated two main Bronze Age sites in Northern Italy:(i) the Terramara Santa Rosa di Poviglio, and (ii) the San Michele di Valestra site, which is a coeval settlement outside the Terramare territory, but in the adjoining Apennine range. Human occupation at San Michele di Valestra persisted after the Terramare crisis and the site was settled with continuity throughout the whole Bronze Ages, up to the Iron Age. The combined geoarchaeological, palaeoclimatic, and archaeobotanical investigation on different archaeological sites and on independent archives for climatic proxies (offsite cores and speleothems) highlights the existence of both climatic and anthropic critical factors triggering a dramatic shift of the landuse of the Terramare civilization. The overexploitation of natural resources became excessive in the late period of the Terramare trajectory, when also a climatic change occurred. A fresh speleothem record for the same region suggests the occurrence of a short-lived period of climatic instability followed by a marked peak of aridity. The unfavourable concomitance between human overgrazing and climatic-triggered environmental pressure, amplified the on-going societal crisis, likely leading to the breakdown of the Terramare civilization in the turn of a generation.

Biogeochemical weathering of stable rock surfaces in warm and cold deserts is a notable biogeomorphological process, which contribute to mineralogical transformation of rock constituents and rock disaggregation. Endolithic microorganisms (mostly bacteria, fungi and lichens) play a major role in controlling the destabilization and rejunevation of rock surfaces; but occasionally, biofilms can stabilize rock surfaces. In most of the casis, endolithic communities precipitates byproducts (e.g. oxalates) contributing to enhance discotnituity and promoting exfoliation and disaggregation. On the contrary, rock varnish can develop as an external crust protecting the underliyng rock from erosion and dissolution. In this contribution, a number of case-studies of fossil and active examples of biogeochemical weathering from warm deserts of Africa and Arabian peninsula and from Antarctica are considered. The comaprison of evidence suggests a highly differentiate – and occasioanlly surprisingly – array of effects of endolithic communities on rock surfaces.

Environmental and time-scale reconstructions of deep sedimentary sequences are based on a wide variety of markers to highlight and characterise environmental variations within a homogeneous sedimentary setting. Moreover, in the lack of reliable age constrain, it is often the only way to highlight timelines and correlations between sequences collected in different places. Within this set of potential markers, palaeosols developed on terrestrial sedimentary beds during biostasy conditions stand out. These evidences are often useful for both their visibility within a core and their strong environmental implications. In continental basins characterized by glacial contributions, they also represent potential time information linked to the fluctuation of glacial and interglacial periods. However, the interpretation of sedimentary markers in cores using visual identification to the naked eye can possibly lead to the wrong conclusions: this method for palaeosol identification is not straightforward and prone to the production of false positives. We conducted detailed micromorphological investigations on a series of markers in a core from the central-northern portion of the Po Plain foreland basin, proximal to the Southern Italian Alps which fed the basin during the Pleistocene.Seventeen sedimentary anomalies were identified during the visual description on the basis of colours and textures as potential palaeosols and were sampled to be studied in thin section. The study allowed to recognise evidences of soil-forming processes, which could characterise the past pedogenesis as well as their environment. From micromorphological analysis, only 4 samples showed visible signs of pedogenesis or post depositional weathering caused by proximity to the surface. Observed elements range from pedoplasmation to pedogenetic features related to redoximorphic processes and clay illuviation, thus allowing to interpreted them as truncated palaeosols. Conversely, 6 samples showed forms of transport of soil material, either sedimentary or in solution, but did not represent soils formed in situ; these can be interpreted as pedorelicts. Of the remaining samples, 5 were calcrete potentially related to groundwaters, and 2 represented accumulations of Fe/Mn oxides in wetland conditions (“bog iron”). These results suggest a reconsideration of the role of palaeosols as stratigraphic markers in the study of subsurface sedimentary sequences. Precise identification and microstructure characterization are necessary to avoid possible misinterpretations and correlations among cores.

During the late Quaternary, Iraqi Kurdistan was the scenario of several fundamental human-relatedevents including the dispersion of Homo in Asia and Europe, the origin of agriculture, the beginningof urbanization, and the formation of the first state entities. We present the initial results of ageoarchaeological investigation in this area, which aims to reconstruct a detailed framework of therelationship between climatic changes, landscape responses, human adaptation, and settlementdistribution during the Late Quaternary. Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic data were collectedfrom two key areas: the territory of the Navkur and Faideh plains, in northern Kurdistan, and a portionof the Erbil plain, in southern Kurdistan. In the two regions, the Land of Niniveh and MAIPEarchaeological missions are operating. Remote sensing, GIS analyses, and geomorphological surveyare the tools used for the geomorphological reconstruction of ancient hydrology (fluvial pattern) andthe evolution of distinct landforms. Geochemical and geochronological analyses on speleothems fromthe Zagros piedmont caves of same region provide information on Holocene climatic variability inthe area. Whereas environmental settings and human land use are investigated on the basis ofsedimentological, palynological, micropaleontological, and geochemical analyses of a fluvio-lacustrine sequences preliminary dated between 40 and 9 ka BP. The lacustrine sequence is composedby clayey and silt-sandy sediments alternating calcareous and organic matter-rich layers.Environmental and geomorphological data have been compared with archaeological information(mostly the chronological distribution of the archaeological sites) to interpret exploitation of naturalresources, the settlement dynamics and shift in land use.

We investigated the characteristics of sparse and fine debris coverage at the glacier melting surface and its relation to ice albedo. In spite of the abundant literature dealing with dust and black carbon deposition on glacier accumulation areas (i.e.: on snow and firn), few studies that describe the distribution and properties of fine and discontinuous debris and black carbon at the melting surface of glaciers are available. Furthermore, guidelines are needed to standardize field samplings and lab analyses thus permitting comparisons among different glaciers. We developed a protocol to (i) sample fine and sparse supraglacial debris and dust, (ii) quantify their surface coverage and the covering rate, (iii) describe composition and sedimentological properties, (iv) measure ice albedo and (v) identify the relationship between ice albedo and fine debris coverage. The procedure was tested on the Forni Glacier surface (northern Italy), in summer 2011, 2012 and 2013, when the fine debris and dust presence had marked variability in space and time (along the glacier tongue and from the beginning to the end of summer) thus influencing ice albedo: in particular the natural logarithm of albedo was found to depend on the percentage of glacier surface covered by debris. Debris and dust analyses indicate generally a local origin (from nesting rockwalls) and the organic content was locally high. Nevertheless the finding of some cenospheres suggests an anthropic contribution to the superficial dust as well. Moreover, the effect of liquid precipitation on ice albedo was not negligible, but short lasting (from 1 to 4 day long), thus indicating that also other processes affect ice albedo and ice melt rates and then some attention has to be spent analysing frequency and duration of summer rainfalls for better describing albedo and melt variability.