A vitric fiamme containing BaO-bearing sanidine (BaO = 11 wt.%) was sampled (via di Fioranello, Rome) in the pyroclastic products of the Lower Flow Unit (LFU) belonging to the Villa Senni Eruption Unit in the Colli Albani Volcanic District (Roman Comagmatic Province, Central Italy). The fiamme of the LFU is essentially made up of glass, in which scarce phenocrysts of BaO-bearing sanidine, leucite and Al2O3-bearing Ca-clinopyroxene occur. In this paper the various parameters controlling barium partitioning between alkali feldspar and LFU liquid, are discussed.

A new occurrence of a rare kamafugite near L'Aquila, Abruzzo, is described in detail to characterize its paragenesis and to establish possible genetic links with similar alkaline mafic igneous rocks from the Oricola-Camerata Nuova (OC) volcanic field, ˜20 km to the west. Both occurrences belong to the Umbria-Latium-Ultralkaline-District (ULUD), an igneous district represented by rare kamafugites and carbonatites and distinct from the much more voluminous Roman Region (RR) rocks. The new kamafugite was found in a cave known as Grotta del Cervo (GC), associated with epiclastic and pyroclastic rocks. In the latter, lapilli ash tuff, welded lapilli, ultramafic xenoliths, cognate lithics and pelletal lapilli have been identified. The mineralogy of the welded lapilli comprises, in order of decreasing abundance, diopside, leucite, haüyne, Mg-mica, andraditic garnet, apatite, magnetite, kalsilite and olivine. The rock is carbonate-free. Based on bulk-rock chemistry it is classified as a kamafugite, closely approaching the composition of ULUD kamafugites, according to Sahama's (1974) criteria. Separate lapilli ash tuff, characterized by the same silicate mineralogy as that of the welded lapilli, plus modal carbonate exceeding 10 wt.%, is classified as a carbonatitic kamafugite. Bulk-rock and trace-element compositions confirm that the Grotta del Cervo rocks closely approach the ULUD analogues.

The Grotta del Cervo occurrence partially fills the geographical and compositional gap between ULUD rocks and the rocks from the Vulture Complex, also a carbonatite and melilitite locality ˜200 km south of GC, and adds considerably to the bulk of kamafugitic and related rocks lying along the Italian Apennines. The petrogenesis of these kamafugites rocks is discussed and possible mineralogical similarities with the Roman Region rocks are highlighted.

Work on thermal pools at Poggetti Vecchi in Grosseto, Italy, exposed an up to 3-meter-thick succession of seven sedimentary units. Unit 2 in the lower portion of the succession contained vertebrate bones, mostly of the straight-tusked elephant, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, commingled with stone, bone, and wooden tools. Thermal carbonates overlying Unit 2 are radiometrically dated to the latter part of the middle Pleistocene. This time span indicates that early Neanderthals produced the human artifacts from Poggetti Vecchi. The elephant bones belong to seven individuals of different ages. Sedimentary facies analysis and paleoecological evidence suggest a narrow lacustrine-palustrine embayment affected by water-level fluctuations and, at times, by hydrothermal water. Cyclic lake-level variations were predominantly forced by the rapid climatic fluctuations that occurred at Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6–7 transition and throughout the MIS 6. Possibly an abrupt, intense, and protracted cold episode during the onset of MIS 6 led to the sudden death of the elephants, which formed an unexpected food resource for the humans of the area. The Poggetti Vecchi site adds new information on the behavioral plasticity and food procurement strategies that early Neanderthals were able to develop in Italy during the middle to the late Pleistocene transition.

Records of eolian quartz from two continuous sediment sequences drilled in Lagaccione and Lago di Vico volcanic lakes in central Italy contribute to the knowledge of eolian deposition in the central Mediterranean during the last 100,000 years. The chronology is based on 14C and 40Ar/39Ar dating and tephra analysis. Pollen data provide the paleoenvironmental framework and enable correlation between the cores. Eolian inputs were high during the steppe phases corresponding to oxygen isotope stages 4 and 2. Low inputs correspond to the forest phases of the last interglacial and the middle Holocene. Eolian inputs have increased in the late Holocene. Patterns of eolian deposition in central Italy resemble the Antarctic dust record from the Vostok ice core. The Italian patterns may also correspond with hydrological changes registered in North Africa. The main source of dust loading over the Mediterranean now, North Africa, may have played an important role in dust supply throughout the last climatic cycle.

Foraminifera and molluscs from the 90 m deep ENEA borehole (Versilian plain, central Italy) were studied for paleoenvironmental purposes. Palaeontological analyses, integrated with U/Th and radiocarbon data, helped to recognize late Quaternary sea-level changes and supplied results on tectonic mobility of the area. The study highlighted four sedimentary phases. The first phase consists of a shore environment attributed to MIS 7.1. A hiatus corresponding to MIS 6 is hypothesized at the top of this interval. Recognition of the paleo-shoreline of MIS 7.1 at − 72.8 m signifies a vertical displacement due to the extensional tectonics of the Apennine orogenesis. The second phase consists of a transgressive succession with evidence of warm temperatures, which was interpreted as part of the transgression leading to the MIS 5.5 highstand. The third phase includes sub-aerial and lacustrine deposits. Radiocarbon dates and palaeoecological reconstruction led us to attribute this interval to MIS 4, MIS 3 and MIS 2. The fourth phase begins with a lagoon environment attributable to Holocene sea-level rise and ends with marsh episodes, signifying the progradation of the alluvial plain. This reconstruction confirms the hypothesis of tectonic stability for the Versilian area during the Holocene.

The historical site of the Monte Mario lower Pleistocene succession (Rome, Italy) is an important marker of the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary. Recently, the Monte Mario site was excavated and restudied. A spectacular angular unconformity characterizes the contact between the Monte Vaticano and the Monte Mario formations, which marks the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary. Biostratigraphical analyses carried out on ostracod, foraminifer, and calcareous nannofossil assemblages indicate an Early Pliocene age (topmost Zanclean, 3.81–3.70 Ma) for the underlying Monte Vaticano Formation, whereas the Monte Mario Formation has been dated as early Pleistocene (Santernian, 1.66–1.59 Ma). Palaeomagnetic analyses point to C2Ar and C1r2r polarity chrons for the Monte Vaticano and the Monte Mario formations, respectively. The Monte Mario Formation consists of two obliquity-forced depositional sequences (MM1 and MM2) characterized by transgressive systems tracts of littoral marine environments at depths, respectively, of 40–80 m and 15–20 m. The data obtained from foraminifer and ostracod assemblages allow us to reconstruct early Pleistocene relative sea-level changes near Rome. At the Plio/Pleistocene transition, a relative sea-level drop of at least 260 m occurred, as a result of both tectonic uplift of the central Tyrrhenian margin and glacio-eustatic changes linked to early Pleistocene glaciation (Marine Isotope Stage 58).

Relatively few radiometrically dated records are available for the central Mediterranean spanning the marine oxygen isotope stage 6–5 (MIS 6–5) transition and the first part of the Last Interglacial. Two flowstone cores from Tana che Urla Cave (TCU, central Italy), constrained by 19 U/Th ages, preserve an interval of continuous speleothem deposition between ca. 159 and 121 ka. A multiproxy record (δ18O, δ13C, growth rate and petrographic changes) obtained from this flowstone preserves significant regional-scale hydrological changes through the glacial/interglacial transition and multi-centennial variability (interpreted as alternations between wetter and drier periods) within both glacial and interglacial stages. The glacial stage shows a wetter period between ca. 154 and 152 ka, while the early to middle Last Interglacial period shows several drying events at ca. 129, 126 and 122 ka, which can be placed in the wider context of climatic instability emerging from North Atlantic marine and NW European terrestrial records. The TCU record also provides important insights into the evolution of local environmental conditions (i.e. soil development) in response to regional and global-scale climate events.

A study of six tephra layers discovered in different deposits between 1600 and 2700 m a.s.l. in the Apennine chain in central Italy allowed precise stratigraphic constraints on environmental and climatic changes between ca. 4.5 and 3.8 cal ka BP. Chemical analyses allowed the correlation of these tephra layers with the eruptions of Agnano Mt Spina (AMST) from Phlegrean Field and Avellino (AVT) from Somma–Vesuvius. Major environmental changes in the high mountains of the Central Apennines occurred just after the deposition of the AMST and predate the deposition of the AVT. At this time, renewed growth of the Calderone Glacier occurred, marking the onset of the Apennine “Neoglacial”. The presence of the AMST and AVT enabled us to make a precise, physical correlation with other archives in central Italy. Synchronization of records between sites showed that the period intervening the deposition of the AMST and AVT layers coincided with environmental changes that were not always exactly in phase. This highlights the fact that stratigraphic correlations using only radiocarbon chronologies (the most common method used for dating archives during the Holocene) could produce erroneous correlation of events, giving rise to oversimplified paleoclimatic reconstructions.

To trace the local extinction of the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra in Latium, central Italy, and examine the causes of the species’ disappearance, we reviewed and classified information from both the scientific and grey literature according to the reliability and geographical accuracy of the records. The temporal and spatial patterns of 160 records from 23 geographical subunits from 1832 to 2006 suggest that the species collapsed between 1960 and 1975; two different extinction patterns were revealed by a set of multivariate analyses. In northern Latium the species collapsed because of several independent local threats. In central and southern Latium the species collapsed because of catastrophic habitat alteration (land reclamation during the 1930s) that negatively affected the source population. After this event the species went extinct in hilly and mountainous areas, where several population sinks occurred. We presume that this latter process drove the remnant otter subpopulations to extinction in central Italy, emphasizing the role of an extinction vortex in causing the collapse of this metapopulation rather than the classical threats recognized for this species. The value of the grey literature for a posteriori historical analysis of local extinction dynamics is highlighted by this research.

Chemical, chemical-physical and biological procedures were employed to carry out a hydrobiological study of a reservoir inthe central Apennines (Italy), designed for the supply of drinking and irrigation water, and tourist recreation facilities.Potentiometric, volumetric, spectrophotometric, and chromatographic techniques were used for the chemical-physical analyses,while the OECD method was adopted to assess the trophic level. The phosphorus and chlorophyll values evidenced the oligomesotrophiccondition of the reservoir, with a dominance of the oligotrophic level. The analysis of the net-phytoplankton communityshowed the prevalence of the oligotrophic level, with a smaller tendency to the mesotrophic one. The dominant specieswere Dinobryon divergens Imhof and D. sertularia Ehrenb. among the Chrysophyceae, and Ceratium hirundinella (O.F. Müll.)Dujardin and Peridinium cinctum Ehrenb. among the Dinophyceae. However, some potentially dangerous inocula (Planktothrixagardhii (Gom.) Anagnostidis et Komárek and Microcystis aeruginosa (Kütz.) Kützing were present, suggesting that the reservoirshould be kept under accurate observation.