Exploration Geology

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

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 outcomes:
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 objectives

The course aims to improve students' knowledge in the field of structural geology from that acquired during the bachelor's degree with special emphasis regarding brittle deformation. In particular, the course aims to familiarize students with the main methods of structural geology starting from thin section analysis (microstructures), laboratory (deformation tests), outcrop (structural analysis like scan lines, scan areas) to 3D modeling (DFN, 3D modeling with dedicated software).

Educational objectives

Expected learning outcomes

Multidisciplinary approach to manage the different connections linking the diverse Earth Science topics related to the study of Quaternary.
Understanding the basic elements of climate and environmental change in the frame work of the recent natural history of the Earth.

Dublin Descriptors

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

Educational goals: the aim of this course is to provide the fundamental knowledge on origin, geographic distribution, age, extraction and use of diamonds, through (classic and modern) experimental petrology applied to the study of Earth’s interior.

Learning outcomes: Knowledge of the most important experimental facilities and analytical instrumentations used in experimental petrology and for the characterization of both synthetic and natural diamonds. Ability to solve petrological problems about the origin and transport of diamonds from the deep mantle to the surface. Learning the preparation and writing of competitive CV for job-searching in the field of diamantiferous extraction and gemological analyses, reading and writing scientific articles and research projects.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

This course aims to develop technological and scientific skills as a tool for investigating the most important physico-chemical properties of rocks and fluids in natural and environmental contexts influenced by petrological, geothermal, and radioactive processes.
The main objective of the course is to provide a deep knowledge on the most important crustal mechanisms influencing the physico-chemical properties of rocks and fluids (liquids, gases and magmas) during their genesis and evolution in different geological environments, with particular attention to the impact that these changes may have on the anthropic activities from an economic, energetic, and health and human life point of view.

Educational objectives

Educational goals: The course will offer to the students a synthetic description of the geological storage techniques with a particular focus on site characterization and monitoring

Learning ouctomes: The student will learn the procedure and studies required for geological storage.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

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 objectives

Educational goals: Knowledge and use of fossil and recent microfossil 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 sedimentary basin. The course is taught
through lectures and practice laboratory work, and assessed by an intermediate test and 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, including an overview of their

taxonomy and evolutionary trends. An key systematic group, the Foraminifera, is used to illustrate in
detail the topics above, in particular its biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental 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 late Paleozoic and Meso-Cenozoic planktonic and benthic foraminifers from thin sections
and washing residues and identify the age and the depositional environments of marine successions, being
able to convey the results for geological mapping purposes or as an industrial micropaleontological
report.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

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:
Who have taken this course should be reasonably comfortable in characterization and identification of minerals, understanding experimental data, consulting much of what appears in 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 objectives

Developing competences 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 vulcanotettonic setting.
Knowledge of applicative jobs on various fields of marine geology.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and learning outcomes

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.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

Educational goals:
Introducing the student to the understanding of the earthquake process: state if stress and triggering phenomena, onset, evolution and arrest of the rupture. The learning process will be approached with modern theories and updated examples from recent earthquakes.

Learning outcomes:
The student at the end of the course will possess the main concepts at the base of the seismological theory, with useful tools to analyze and model observation, following procedures currently followed in international scientific centers.

Educational objectives

Educational goals: The main objective of the course is to put the basis of the frictional theory of faulting. At the same time, we seek to give the students a flavor of how an experimental laboratory, and in particular a lab dealing with earthquake physics, works. The students have to develop skills and abilities in: 1) friction laws; 2) recognizing how different rock deformation apparatuses work; 3) data acquisition, analysis and interpretation.

Learning outcomes: Earthquake physics and friction laws. Being able to acquire, plot and analyse an experimental dataset. Being able to link laboratory studies on earthquake physics to some aspects relevant for energy industry and seismic hazard.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

Educational goals: Students will be able to analyze and use carbonate sequences for the reconstructions of environmental, oceanographic and climatic conditions starting first from outcrop analysis (measurements of stratigraphic sections, photos and facies mapping) and subsequently in the laboratory (microfacies analysis, analysis quantitative, correlation between stratigraphic sections, diagenetic analysis and isotope analysis).

Learning outcomes: Successful students will be able to select and select the most effective method of investigation for the study of carbonate sequences, and propose a reconstruction of environmental, oceanographic and climatic evolution.

Educational objectives

The educational goal of the course is to provide a general framework on the concepts related to the energy
transition process. In particular, basic physics and chemistry topics will be treated with a geological
approach, but also with implications in the economic, engineering, ecological and sociological fields. The
concept of total system energy, of useful energy (exergy) and of non-usable energy (anergy) will be applied
to various stages of economic-industrial processes, to underline the need to increase knowledge in detail of
the various facets of activities related to western lifestyle. The course will provide the student with the
fundamental skills for understanding the fundamental relationships between hard science (especially
physics and chemistry) and the declinations associated with the production of goods necessary to support
the growth and maintenance of quality standards in developed countries. The approach will be completely
multidisciplinary, with information in the theoretical field but also of an applied type in specific topics
related to the industrial production cycle, including the concept of circular economy. The course will be
fundamentally based on the role of hydrocarbons and the search for alternative energy sources that can
compete with fossil ones, with implications on the physics of the atmosphere by developing the concept of
pollutant. Major emphasis will be devoted on the possible processes for the neutralization, capture and use
of CO 2 and its surface and deep cycles. Topics related to nuclear energy (both associated with the fission
and fusion processes) will be covered, but also with the fundamental implications in the cultural sphere
that the drive to search for new energy sources will force us to follow.

Educational objectives

Basic knowledge of microfossils and their applications in paleoenvironmental and
paleoecological fields. Identification of the most significant ecological groups of
foraminifers. Knowledge of the most common methods for the biostratigraphical and
paleoecological reconstructions of marine Neogene-Quaternary successions. Analysis for
the stratigraphical, paleoenvironmental and paleoecological reconstructions.
Environmental characterization and biomonitoring.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

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.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

Educational goals: the course aims at providing interpretive criteria and methods for the geological survey of volcanic terrains and the reconstruction of related genetic processes.
Learning outcomes: 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 objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

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 the 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 objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

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 ouctomes: 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.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

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 geological models.

Learning outcomes: Integrated interpretation of seismic reflection data, constrained by the available well data, also based on software packages by academic licences.

Educational objectives

Developing competences and expected learning outcomes

Educational goals: The aim of the course is to focus the student’s ability on the employment of geophysical methods to solve problems related to the near surface geophysics and applied geology.

Learning outcomes: The students will enhance their ability on the interpretation of the different geophysical data sets to solve the problems related to the near surface geophysics and applied geology.

Educational objectives

Learning Objectives:
The main aim of the course is to inform the students about the methodologies, technologies and data that can be acquired together with the models that can be obtained from the studies about the geological characterization of rock reservoirs. The course will regard rock mechanics, structural geology, and petroleum engineering with the aim of shed light on the possibilities of exploitation of oil and gas reservoirs both in conventional terms and in terms of possible subsurface gas storage sites.