Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

Educational goals: At the end of the course the student should be able to employ the thermodynamic concepts and principal relations in geological problems.

Educational goals:
The student is provided the theoretical basis and the tools (also information) for the interpretation of the main geophysical methods for the study of the seabed. Are also treated the sampling methods and means for the acquisition of data at sea.
Learning ouctomes:
Knowledge of the principles for geophysical prospecting of marine geology
Knowledge of instrumentation and sampling techniques of the fund and subsoil
Ability to design campaigns for relief on the basis of scientific objectives
Knowledge of the principles of seismic data processing and sonar
Ability to interpret geophysical data and sampling of the seabed

Educational goals:
The course aims to provide a broad theoretical knowledge of the deformation of the upper crust processes as well as a methodology for recognition and practical investigation of fault systems and fractures at different working scales.

Learning ouctomes:
The student will be able to deal with the analysis of complex brittle geological structures.

The course seeks to provide students with the basic theoretical knowledge allowing to reconstruct the complex mechanisms that regulate the relationship between climatic changes and evolution of ecosystems, particularly the biological component. This in turn will allow them a better understanding of the dynamics behind the mid- to long-term climatic changes. The course will provide students with innovative methodological approaches and techniques in advanced palaeoecological studies. These theoretical and operational competences will enable students to explore mechanisms of ecosystem evolution in relation to climate change, assessing their biotic dynamics and anticipating future dispersals and extinctions of individual species and biodiversity fluctuations.
Successful students will acquire theoretical knowledge about the history of the Earth over the past 2.6 million years, and will be able to analyze specific issues by means of a multidisciplinary approach. They will also acquire basic information on the evolution of ecosystems (particularly the continental ones), and problems related to different methodological approaches useful for a correct understanding of the causal factors promoting and driving the evolutionary dynamics of ecosystems. Such theoretical skills may be applied to studying and reconstructing the past ecosystems (at population, community and biogeographic level) as well as predicting the possible evolution of the present ones.

Educational goals:
Knowledge and use of fossil and recent assemblages for basic studies on different geological issues. Biostratigraphical and paleoecological methods applied to marine successions in order to reconstruct the spatial and chronological evolution of a sedimentary basin. The course is taught through lectures, practice laboratory work, and assessed by an oral and practical (microscope) examination at the end of the semester.

Learning outcomes:
Knowledge and Understanding: successful students will be able to understand basic principles of biostratigraphy and paleoecology of the main groups of microfossils (foraminifera, calpionellids, calcareous algae, nannofossils, ostracods, radiolarians, conodonts) including an overview of their taxonomy and evolutionary trends. An example of systematic group, the foraminifera, is used to illustrate the topics above, in particular its biostratigraphic, paleoenvironmental and paleoecological potential.
Skills and Attributes: successful students will be able to apply in geological contexts biostratigraphical and paleoecological principles. At the end of the course the average student will be able to recognize the most common Paleozoic and Meso-Cenozoic planktonic and smaller and larger benthic foraminifers from thin sections and washing residues, employ microfossil biozonations and infer the depositional environments of marine successions.

Educational goals: The course aims to give the student a basic understanding of carbonate sedimentology and different method of analysis from outcrop to laboratory (thin sections, analysis of cements, stratigraphic logs, cyclostratigraphy, correlation in 2D and 3 D settings)

Learning ouctomes: Successful students will be able to select and use the modern methodology of analysis of carbonate systems from 1 D, 2D and 3D data.

Educational goals:
The course gives a basic knowledge of the analytical techniques and methodology for the mineralogy, the way atoms aggregate to form minerals, of the physical properties that allow identification of minerals.

Learning outcomes:
The student who has taken this course should be reasonably comfortable in the characterization and identification of minerals, understanding experimental data, consulting the mineralogical literature such as reference volumes and articles. At the end of the course, the student will be able to read and understand, at least at a basic level, a scientific paper describing a mineral. The student will be able to characterize, at least at a basic level, a mineral, to process the acquired data.

Educational goals: The course aims to give the student a basic knowledge of structural crystallography with particular emphasis to the characterization of minerals, nano-minerals, and short-range ordered materials both at ambient and non-ambient conditions; to provide the theoretical ground to interpret and model structure modifications as a function of pressure and temperature as well as the practical skill to built experiments for the investigation of such topics. The course is taught through lectures, practice laboratory work taking advantage of the analytical instruments available at the Earth Sciences Department.

Learning outcomes: Successful students will be able to understand the basic principles of the interaction between X-rays and condensed matter. Collection of non-ambient X-ray powder diffraction data on quartz and gypsum samples will be used as test cases for understanding the theoretical ground necessary for the description and quantitative evaluation of thermal expansion, phase transition detection, and modelling of kinetics of phase transformation. Students will understand the basic principles for quantitative evaluation of the dependence of the crystal structure from P and T and to apply such information to geological contexts. Successful students will be able to exploit basic practical skills to project, perform, and evaluate analyses for a correct structural characterization of minerals, nano-minerals, and short-range ordered materials under both ambient and non-ambient conditions; students will develop basic practical skills to be used for the management of an X-ray diffraction laboratory; will be able to describe and model the dependence of the structure of minerals from P and T using standard kinetics models; will be able to perform quantitative analysis of simple powder binary mixtures.

Educational goals: The main objective of the course is to give the students a flavor of how an experimental laboratory, and in particular a rock deformation lab works. In particular students have to develop skills in 1) recognizing how different rock deformation apparatuses work; 2) data acquisition, analysis and interpretation.

Learning outcomes: Being able to recognize how different rock deformation apparatuses work. Being able to acquire, plot and analyse an experimental dataset. Being able to link petro-physical studies to some aspects relevant for energy industry and geological hazard.

Skills to be developed and expected learning outcomes:

Knowledge of ability to use the main tools for seabed exploration.
Ability to design and interpretation of marine surveys.
Knowledge of the marine environment and of the geological processes acting in the different domains.
Knowledge of the evolution of continental margins in the long, short and very short term, even in relation to global change.
Knowledge of the Italian seas and their correlation with the geodynamic, sedimentary and volcanotettonic setting.
Knowledge of the various fields of applied marine geology.

The course aims to illustrate the methodologies, technologies and the data can be acquired and the studies that are commonly performed in order to assess the risk in the exploration and prediction of oil resources. The applications cover the entire spectrum of oil exploration from the preliminary studies until the detailed studies carried out in mature areas from the production point of view. Attending students will gain knowledge of the processes and techniques that go from the acquisition of the data, trough the model building to the calculation of available reserves within a petroleum system.

The student will learn how to tackle facies analysis and geological mapping in regions where siliciclastic systems merge with carbonate systems, and a rugged topography of the Paleozoic basement, enhanced by multiphase rifting through the Early Jurassic, rules over the 3D distribution of deposits and paleoenvironments. The main theme of the course is that of identifying an intricate pattern of unconformities (onlaps, downlaps, non-conformities, drowning paraconformities), and rarely seen details of a groove-and-spur submarine topography, and learning how to map them through field exercises, in an area far removed from more typical training grounds in the Apennines.

To provide interpretive criteria and methods for the geological survey of volcanic terrains and the reconstruction of related genetic processes.
Acquiring knowledge and ability on: distribution and style of volcanism as related to the different geological-structural settings; description and interpretation of volcanic successions in terms of eruption and emplacement processes; working criteria for stratigraphy and field mapping of volcanic terrains; field and laboratory analyses for the characterization of volcanic units and the reconstruction of related eruptive parameters.

Educational goals: The course aims to provide the basic principles and the HP-HT experimental methods of investigation to be used in studies of igneous rocks and has as main purpose the understanding of the processes that govern the crystallization of magmas and of the relationship between the experimental data and the chemical-physical models, and their relations with volcanology.

Learning outcomes: modeling of the magmatic crystallization by means of the MELTS software; experiments of the magmatic crystallization in the HP-HT laboratory; geothermobarometric applications to igneous rocks.

Educational goals: Knowledge of the major metallogenic processes. Knowledge of the main classifications of mineral deposits. Acquisition of the basic principles of ore mineralogy for the identification of metallic ores. Knowledge of the main physical and mechanical properties of stone materials. Knowledge of the processes of degradation of stone materials and the main forms of alteration. Acquisition of the main investigation techniques for the characterization of stone materials.

Learning outcomes: Students will acquire basic elements on the origin, the main characteristics of the mineralizing fluids and the main types of mineral deposits. Students who pass the exam will be able to apply concepts and principles useful to recognize the main types of mineral deposits and frame the metallogenic processes in relation to their different geodynamic environments.
Acquire basic elements on the main physical and mechanical properties of stone materials, the processes of degradation of stone materials and the main forms of alteration. Apply important concepts and principles to recognize the main forms of alteration of stone materials and define the main physical and mechanical properties of stone materials. In addition, at the end of the course students will be able to characterize using various analytical methods the main types of stone materials. In addition, at the end of the course students will be able to recognize the main metallic minerals by microscopic observations in reflected light.

The course of Applied Geophysics to the Energy Resources focuses on the geothermal resources exploration. It deals with geophysical methods for identifying reservoirs and physical properties and explains measurement principles and interpretation methods and modeling. The course covers electrical, electromagnetic, magnetic, gravity, seismic, and magnetotelluric methods to define structures, to assess geothermal potential, and techniques to define thermal properties of the interesting site.

Educational goals: To provide basic knowledge about acquisition and processing of seismic reflection data, appropriate skills to support data interpretation, and methodologies for the development of 3D geological models.

Learning outcomes: Integrated interpretation of 2D and 3D seismic reflection data, constrained by the available well data, also based on modern software packages. Understanding of workflows to properly time-depth convert in 2D and 3D the results of the interpretation. Ability to develop 3D geological models of subsurface structure.

Course Aims:
The course aims to give students a basic understanding of techniques in experimental petrology in order to reproduce, in laboratory, the most important petrogenetic process of igneous rocks.

Learning Outcomes:
Increase the knowledge on the most important experimental apparatus and analytical instrumentations used in experimental petrology. Skills and abilities for resolving petrological problems concerning the origin and evolution of magma from the mantle to the crust, and within volcanic conduits.

Educational goals: The course aims to furnish advanced knowledge on the main petrogenetic processes related to different geodynamic contexts, with the help of geochemical and petrological tools, using also specific software.

Learning ouctomes: Knowledge and capacity of comprehension of the fundamental processes ruling the origin and evolution of magmas in different tectonic settings. Link between geochemistry and geodynamics.

To provide fundamental knowledge on magmas, processes and products of volcanic activity and suitable methods for the study of volcanic deposits aiming at reconstructing the related genetic processes.
Acquiring knowledge and ability on: the assessment of the origin and evolution of magmas, and styles of volcanic activity, as also related to different geological-structural settings; analysis and interpretation of volcanic products and landforms in terms of pre-eruptive and eruptive processes; reconstruction of stratigraphy and geology of volcanic areas with implications for environmental and hazard issues.