PhD student representatives:
- Marco Baroni (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
- Mauro Tieri (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
In the 39th Cycle, a scholarship is funded by the 
SUPER-C project, selected for the MUR 2023-2027 Departments of Excellence
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Marco BARONI
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Contatti |
Description: My PhD project focuses on the compositional characterization of volcanic terrains on various Solar System bodies, with a specific focus on the areas surrounding Martian vulcanic edifices such as Olympus, Thyrrenus and Hadriacus Mons.
The main goal of the PhD project is to produce detailed maps of these areas using the data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) mounted on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Even if the instrument does not take data anymore since April 2023, it collected more than 10 Tb of data during its lifetime, thus providing us with many hyperspectral images of various terrains on the Martian surface to analyze this huge data mole.
I will implement techniques from big data analysis, from exploratory (PCA, clustering, etc...) to advance analysis methods such as machine learning (random forest, supervector machines, CORELS, etc..) and neural network (FFNN, CNN, RNN, etc...) algorithms.
I will integrate also spectral reference data collected by the PVRG (Petro Vulcanology Research Group) regarding silicate glasses (amorphous) volcanic products and remote sensing spectral analysis of hyperspectral images from the ASI instrument PRISMA as a comparative analogue for the future obtained CRISM spectra.
Moreover, a possible secondary goal of this project is to try to use the obtained spectra to infer the degree of crystallization of the magmatic areas with different age to try to obtain information about the past atmospheric density of the Red Planet, thus using the lava crystallization level as a proxy for atmospheric density.
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Nilya BENGÜL |
Contatti Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Title: Deep Past Climate Research for the Current and Future Climate Scenarios
Description:By studying the Earth's history and past climate dynamics, researchers gain valuable insights into the complex interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, land, and living organisms. This information helps in developing climate models and projections for the near future.
The project concentrates on investigating two specific geological periods: the late Permian, and the Late Triassic. These intervals are characterized by significant ecosystem crises that led to two of the most critical mass extinction events in the Phanerozoic eon. The research aims to examine the geological and climatic conditions during these two periods to gain insights into the causes and consequences of these ecosystem crises. It outlines key research objectives, including identifying the causes of hyperthermal events, understanding ecosystem responses to global warming, assessing the impact of disturbances, and providing data for modeling future climate scenarios.
The research will adopt a multidisciplinary approach, combining various scientific fields such as sedimentology, sedimentary petrography, geochemistry, and organic matter studies.
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Elham SAFARZADEH
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Contatti Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Title: Recent seismotectonic evolution of central- Northern Adriatic microplate: geophysical and geological-structural studies to develop inventory maps of potential sites for CCS in the Adriatic Sea area
Description:This Project focuses on geophysical and geological-structural studies aimed at creating inventory maps of potential Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) sites and identifying active fault systems in the Adriatic Sea area, particularly in the central-northern Adriatic region. Geophysical studies are essential for identifying appropriate geological formations to store CO2 effectively. These studies employ imaging techniques to map subsurface structures and pinpoint potential reservoirs for CO2 storage. Geological-structural assessments further analyze the geology of these sites, evaluating their capacity and integrity for long-term CO2 storage. By combining geophysical and geological structure data, inventory maps are created, highlighting regions with favorable geological conditions for implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiatives.
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Mauro TIERI
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Contatti:Email:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Title: Study of the river geochemistry in tectonically active regions for the investigation of seismicity and the quantification of deep CO2 emission
Description: The objective of this research project is to study the CO2 Earth degassing process in central Italy and its correlation with seismicity by investigating river waters. The focus is on developing geochemical approaches for quantify the deep CO2 emissions on a large scale for monitoring the seismic activity.
The involvement of CO2-rich fluids in Apennine seismicity has been recently demonstrated. Specific geochemical investigations of the Apennine groundwater have shown strong variations in the emission of deep CO2 associated to the recent strong earthquakes suggesting non-casual relationships between the two phenomenologies. Preliminary studies of river waters showed that the river water is capable to preserve for long distances the geochemical features related to the input of CO2 rich groundwater. High-frequency monitoring of geochemical parameters of river water would promote understanding of cause-effect relationships between CO2 degassing and seismicity, and the development of a multiparametric network for seismic activity in the region, which represents a task for the INGV. For this purpose, multidisciplinary approaches will be used for system characterization: river geochemistry will be studied together with hydrogeological and geological data, geochemical modelling and data analysis. Sensors will be installed in selected sites for the implementation of the geochemical network, thanks to the collaboration of INGV.
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Hadayat ULLAH
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Contatti: Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Title: Thin-skinned vs thick skinned anticlines in Foreland Fold-and-Thrust Belts: modelling the style of deformation of the Umbria-Marche anticlines by integrating Geological and Geophysical data
Description: The style of deformation of the Umbria-Marche fold-and-thrust belt has been debated for a long time. Like for many other fold-and-thrust belts worldwide (Poblet & Lisle, 2011, Pfiffner, 2017), contrasting thin-skinned and thick-skinned modes of deformation has been proposed (Barchi & Tavarnelli, 2022). The project is aimed to build-up a comprehensive model of the Umbria-Marche folds, by integrating data from different sources: surface geology from both original field mapping and pre-existing maps; deep boreholes; seismic reflection profiles; other geophysical surveys and elaborations. The full geometry of an “ideal”, representative anticline, obtained by this integrated model, will be tested kinematically (e.g. by classical restoration/balancing techniques) and mechanically (e.g. by numerical modelling). Important practical applications of a correct identification of the deformation style include the characterization of the carbonate reservoirs, hosted in the anticline cores, as well as the estimation of seismic hazard in Po Plain/Adriatic foreland. The results of the study will be compared with other case histories worldwide, taken from foreland fold-and-thrust belts deforming carbonate successions.
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Giulia FISAULI
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Title: Tephra characterization from different natural archives for the study of the impacts of explosive eruptions and past atmospheric circulation paths
Description: The PhD project is focused on the study and characterization of tephra (i.e. unconsolidated clastic material produced by a volcanic eruption) from different geological records, such as ice cores and marine sediments, for the study of the impact of explosive eruptions.
By analyzing and characterizing the tephra and their dispersion it will be possible to obtain important volcanological information such as the age, the volcanic source, the chemical evolution of the magma, the eruptive dynamics and the intensity and magnitude of the eruptions. Tephra also provide time-stratigraphic constraints both for geological and environmental events useful both for paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. In addition, studying the tephra dispersion will provide important information on the study of past atmospheric circulation paths.
I’ll carry out geochemical analyses both for major and trace elements (EPMA and LA-ICP-MS respectively) and 40Ar/39Ar dating techniques.
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Elia PANDOLFI BALBI |
Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Title: Reuse of industrial and domestic waste in the construction of road pavements
Description: Recent international commitments are promoting the use of renewable energy sources to making possible the recycle of waste and to reducing use of fossil fuels for lower carbon dioxide emissions. Following these aims biomass-fueled thermal power plants should be increase, generating many waste of ashes need to be recycled. My project is to develop of strategies to reuse industrial and domestic biomass ashes waste in road building as stabilizing agents and filler. My phd will be founded half by Pavi company which is performer of pavements roads. The project will be followed by the collaboration between the Physics and Geology Department, where I will carry out chemical-mineralogical analysis, to check the formations of cement compounds within treated lands, and Pavi Company, where I will perform structural engineering analysis to verify the improvements of geotechnical properties within treated lands provided by the company. Additional analyses will be carried out at Viaria laboratory, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, and dedicated to the characterization of materials used in road pavements. This way the chemical-physical processes occurring with the addition of biomass wastes, in the different layers of road pavements will be
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Elpiniki Maria PARPAROUSI |
Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Project title: Research and conservation strategies for the paleontological heritage: case studies from Umbria
Abstract: Umbria represents an area of extreme interest for paleontological studies, especially with regard to marine and continental vertebrates of the Pliocene and Pleistocene (last 3 million years approximately). In spite of the great abundance of fossils, also of international scientific importance, the study of some collections is still at a preliminary stage. At the same time, the problem of the conservation of this important heritage has never been addressed, especially considering the multifaceted range of taphonomic contexts from which the fossils come. Through the identification of case studies from heterogeneous stratigraphic and taphonomic contexts, this project aims to provide on the one hand unpublished scientific data fundamental to the knowledge of the Umbrian paleontological heritage, on the other crucial information for its conservation, which can also be exported for other collections in Italy and abroad.
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Haidra SALEH |
Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
Project title: Assessing large scale ecological responses to climatic change of Central Mediterranean area in the last 2000 years.
Project Description: This project will investigate the ecological dynamics across Central Mediterranean area in the last 2000 years. The semi-enclosed configuration of the Mediterranean Sea makes this a vulnerable region to modern, and also to past climate changes. Archaeological and historic studies and paleoclimatic data make this area a perfect case study to investigate the potential influence of climate on civilisations. The focus will consist in the reconstruction of paleo-floral dynamics. This approach will enable relationships within and between ecosystems, as well as periods of stability and periods of change. The method will mainly consist in the traditional – to reconstruct the vegetational paleo-community - and chemical palynology - to reconstruct past solar irradiance, specifically ultraviolet radiation at the local, habitat scale. Stable isotope analysis of C and O will establish the precipitation regime, the atmospheric CO2 concentration as well as nutrient supply and ecosystem productivity
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Alessandra ARIANO
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: Geochemical-environmental monitoring of soil gases and gases dissolved in groundwater
The research, in collaboration with Thearen srl, consists in testing a network of mobile sensors for monitoring the concentration and fluxes of gases from soil ad natural waters. The analysis will be done on Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane and also on indirect greenhouse gases with high global warming potential including volatile organic compounds (VOC). We will use low energy consumption sensors for the concentration of CO2 and CH4 and also the new accumulation chamber under developement in Thearen srl for the fluxes of CO2, CH4 and VOC. The research has three main phases of which the first is a. choice and testing of sensors and the accumulation chambers, b. monitoring network design, geostatistical and machine learning software developement and c. to experiment the network in different geological-environmental contexts. The geological-environmental contexts could be anthropogenic contexts like potentially contaminated sites, landfills and clean-up areas or natural contexts like large-degassing processes areas like geothermal, volcanic and seismic regions.
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Alessandro SABATINI
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: Mapping the thermophysical properties of Appennines rocks: implications for the geothermal potential
Description: Nonostante l'esistenza di un elevato numero di misure del flusso di calore nel mondo, l'andamento della temperatura all'interno della Terra è molto incerto. Con questo progetto mi propongo di effettuare un'ampia raccolta di campioni sulla quale condurre misure di proprietà termofisiche quali conducibilità termica, diffusività termica, capacità termica specifica, densità, porosità e composizione mineralogica, con lo scopo di mappare la conducibilità termica dei campioni analizzati e ricavare delle relazioni teoriche tra le proprietà, che possano essere applicate anche per rocce presenti in altri parti del mondo. Tutto ciò potrebbe avere implicazioni sulla stima del potenziale geotermico delle aree di studio.
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Martina BURNELLI
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: TERRA - geodiversiTy and biodivERsity in uRban Areas
Description: The current Climate Emergency calls for political actions and research aimed at building a more sustainable future for all. As stated by the World Urbanization Prospects of 2018 (ONU), within the 2050 the urban areas will host more than the 70% of population. Thus, the need for more sustainable cities is a really urgent issue too. Hence, In my PhD project I would like to define a new quantitative and scale-independent model of geomorphodiversity (GM), as a starting point for the life support on Earth and as and index of the geomorphological variety in urban areas. The analysis of the correlation between the GM index and the biodiversity index will create a potential new indicator for the safeguard of green spaces in the city. This indicator will be then tested in three different urban context. A final step will foreseen a larger map analysis in Italy through the use of the geomorphodiversity index. All the PhD project will be carried out with the collaboration of many researchers and Institute: the CNR IRPI of Perugia, the Department of Physics and Geology and the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences of Unipg , the University of Lousanne and the Sapienza University in Rome.
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Marco URBANI
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: CO2 Capture & Storage (CCS): Structurally controlled reservoirs
Description: Geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) represents an immediately (and realistic) applicable technology to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions responsible of global warming. In this context, even structurally controlled reservoirs can be deployed to achieve the goal of contrasting the climate change. The aims of this project are to obtain a structural characterization for the components (reservoir and caprock) of a CO2 storage site, to have a site characterization for geological storage of CO2 by studying representative areas and to define the variations of stress and strain in the rocks subjected to injection of CO2.
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Sofia ORTENZI
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: Analysis of infiltration and runoff processes in small hill basins: from laboratory to site scale
Description: The project intends to analyse both at laboratory and site scale, the problem of runoff and its consequences (e.g. runoff, soil loss, etc.). The research aims to develop a procedure for defining runoff activation thresholds on slopes with medium-low permeability. An integrated approach of ground-based data with satellite observations (rainfall and soil moisture data) will be used to optimise the analysis and reduce the cost and time of data acquisition.
Pubblicazioni
1. Di Matteo et al., 2021. Processes in the Unsaturated Zone by Reliable Soil Water Content Estimation: Indications for Soil Water Management from a Sandy Soil Experimental Field in Central Italy. Sustainability 2021, 13, 227. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010227
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Fabio SILVANI
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: Geomorphological evidence of active tectonics and relationships with Quaternary deformation from case studies in central Italy
Description: This PhD project focuses on geological mapping and the morphotectonic study of post orogenetic intermountain basins of central Italy. The goal is to propose a morphotectonic evolution of the area by analysing the geomorphological evidences (landscape evolution and drainage network) and the Quaternary continental deposits in the context of recent and active tectonics. The project is funded by the CARG project (Geological and geomatic CARtography), with the collaboration of ISPRA and the Umbria Region.
Pubblicazioni
1.Silvani, F. (2021). The key role of anthropic underground cavities in the urban geology: the Etruscan Well in Perugia's upper town (Umbria, central Italy). Atti del 90° Congresso della Società Geologica Italiana. 14-16 Settembre 2021. Trieste. https://doi.org/10.3301/ABSGI.2021.03
2.Melelli L., Silvani F., Ercoli M., Pauselli C., Tosi G., & Radicioni F. (2021). Urban Geology for the Enhancement of the Hypogean Geosites: the Perugia Underground (Central Italy). Geoheritage, 13(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-021-00545-z
3.Ercoli M., Melelli L., Pauselli C., Silvani F. (2019). Geophysics and Geomorphology for archaeo-geosites in urban area: the Etruscan Well in Perugia (Umbria, central Italy). Atti del 38° Convegno GNGTS - Gruppo Nazionale di Geofisica della Terra Solida. 12-14 Novembre 2019. ISBN: 978-88-940442-9-4.
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Martina OCCHIPINTI
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: Multispectral data analysis for detection of environmental effects induced by large earthquakes
Description: Large earthquakes produce important effects on the natural and anthropic environment which can last for several years or decades. These earthquakes are able to perturb the environment in terms of important ground deformation, hydrologic crises and dangerous landslides. The monitoring of these effects is a challenging task that is impossible to carry out only with field observations. For this reason, a wide remote sensing observation repeated during time allows us to have an integrated view of the environmental evolution after large magnitude earthquakes. The aim of this PhD project is to develop an automatic remote sensing technique for detecting the temporal evolution of physical parameters at the surface (e.g., displacement, temperature, humidity) before and after a large earthquake. To this aim, multispectral data from satellites of the Copernicus Program will be used. The ultimate goal is to mitigate the hazard associated with the environmental effects induced by large earthquakes. The case study will be the 2016 central Italy earthquake, where a large amount of data is available. The industrial partner is the “Eagleprojects” company, which is specialized in remote sensing and big data analysis.
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Monica Agreda LOPEZ
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: Data Driven Approach to investigate pre-eruptive magma storage conditions and trigger mechanisms of volcanic eruptions
Description: During this PhD project we aim to improve the estimate of P-T conditions of volcanic plumbing systems and magma dynamics by modeling compositional variations in melts and crystals using machine learning algorithms. We also aim to define the evolution of crystal-melt partitioning and modeling the diffusion of chemical elements along with 1D profiles and 2D maps for determining the time elapsed between magma refilling and eruption by modelling their temporal evolution.
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Luca PASQUALONE
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD project
Title: Depositional evolution of a space-time migrating foredeep through a multidisciplinary/multiscale approach: an example from the Marnoso-Arenacea basin (Northern Apennines, Italy)
Description: In the Umbria pre-Apennines a comprehensive and updated synthesis of the depositional architecture and the structural setting of the Miocene foredeep succession is still lacking. Also the deformation times have been only roughly defined, except for some limited sectors. Another important but underdeveloped issue regards the values of sedimentation ratios over time and under the influence of the emplacement of the Tuscan-Ligurian allochthon and the activity of possible syn-sedimentary normal faults active in the foreland. Defining the relationships between the different tectono-stratigraphic units, and integrating them with literature biostratigraphic data, will allow to constrain the sedimentary evolution, the physiography of the basin and the timing of the deformations. Further aims of this work are to provide constraints to the burial history of the Miocene foredeep. The final synthesis of the project will be an attempt to apply methods of basin-analysis to the entire Marnoso-Arenacea foredeep. This objective will be pursued through a multidisciplinary approach, integrating field mapping, detailed stratigraphic and structural analysis, and the interpretation of any available seismic reflection line that crosses the study area also aided by three-dimensional modeling techniques.
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Matteo BISOLFATI
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD Project
Title: Constraining the geochemical composition of lavas erupted on extraterrestrial planets by spectral analysis of experimental samples. (Petrology, Planetary Geology)
Topic: This PhD work will focus on the analysis of the spectral response in the infrared range of samples rocks made in the laboratory by melting natural material. Gained results will be comparate with the cosmic radiometry measurements, in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI). In parallel we will analyze the fractal geometric characteristics through the analysis of Digital Elevation Models of natural surfaces with the purpose to extrapolate chemical, geometric and geomorphological information of geological environments.
Publications
Pisello et al., 2019. Retrieving magma composition from TIR spectra: implications for terrestrial planets investigations. Scientific Reports, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51543-9
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Maria Chiara CACIOLLI
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Contacts |
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Nicola Mitillo
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Contacts: Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
PhD Project
Title: Characterization of CO2 Geological Reservoir Storage
Topic: Mostly of carbonates reservoirs have been used for oil and gas production for their favorable characteristics like porosity and permeability, but only recently researchers understood the potential value of these formations as tools in addressing climate change. From this point of view, carbonate reservoirs, which are known to be much more chemically reactive when interacting with CO2, were poorly investigated. For this reason, the aims of the PhD will be to fully understand the behavior and interaction between the injected CO2 and the hosting rock from a petrophysical, mineralogical and geochemical point of view.
References
1. Zucchini A. et al, 2019. The influence of the dolomitization process on texture and porosity of carbonates. Congresso congiunto SIMP-SGI SOGEI – Il tempo del pianeta Terra e il tempo dell'uomo: Le geoscienze fra passato e futuro (Parma, Italia)
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Lisa RICCI
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Contacts Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: Address: |
PhD Project
Title: Tectonic and volcanic Earth degassing along the European Cenozoic Rift System (ECRIS): Origin of the fluids and quantification of the process.
Topic: My current project is focuses on the study of Earth degassing along the passive rift named European Cenozoic Rift System (ECRIS). The aims of the project are the quantitative estimation of the CO2 flux and the study of the chemical and isotopic composition of fluids discharged to the surface along the ECRIS system. The quantification of the total CO2 discharged to the atmosphere from rift areas is crucial for the correct definition of the present-day global Earth degassing.
References
1. Mancini et al., 2020. Geogenic CO2 flux calculations from the Late Pleistocene Tivoli travertines (Acque Albule Basin, Tivoli, Central Italy). DOI: 10.3301/IJG.2020.10
2. Ricci et al., 2018. Oxygen isotopic analysis of Mineo (Sicily, Italy) pallasite. Plinius, doi: 10.19276/plinius.2018.03016
3. Ricci et al., 2017. Oxygen isotopic analysis of Mineo (Sicily, Italy) pallasite. Geoscience: a tool in a changing world. Abstract book. Congresso SIMP-SGI-SOGEI-AIV 2017, doi: 10.3301/ABSGI/2017.01