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Caprarola

Caprarola is a small town in the Viterbo province, in the Lazio Region of Central Italy, built on the Cimini Mounts, not far from the Vico Lake. The old part of the town and the surrounding country-side is dominated by the Farnese Palace which was initially built as a fortress by the cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1530. The geology of the area is dominated by the volcanic products of the Vico apparatus, which belong to the volcanic complex of Mts. Cimini (~0.90-1.30Ma), and represent the petrographic, geochemical and chronological transition between the product of the Tuscan Magmatic Province in the north and of the Roman Magmatic Province to the south (Aulinas et al., 2011). The evolution of the Cimini complex includes three main phases: (1) intrusion of a shallow laccolith, rising along NW and NE trending faults; (2) emplacement of lava domes along radial and tangential fractures; (3) ignimbrite eruptions and final effusion of olivine-latitic lavas (Cimarelli & De Rita, 2006).

In the area, thermal spring and gas vents are present. Geochemical composition and isotope of hot water (25.3 °C to 62.2 °C) indicated that hot fluids reach the surface by ascending from deep, high permeability Mesozoic limestones, present under the volcanic rock of the Cimino Volcanic Complex, whereas the recharge area is the summit region of Mount Cimino.

The preparatory action A1 is dedicated to the characterization of the Caprarola site, collecting all the information (already available for Ciampino and Celleno Cities) useful for demonstration implemented in Action B. A fieldwork, based inter-comparison survey among the partner instruments, will be carried out in Italy to harmonize and inter- compare the monitoring techniques.

All the different monitoring devices used in the project, even in Belgium, will be inter-calibrate during this action. The main goal of the survey at Caprarola site are:

  1. Measurement devices calibration and harmonization of field techniques and data analysis
  2. Soil-gas surveys, soil permeability survey, Rn flux measurements and dissolved Rn in groundwater survey

 

References

  • Cimarelli & De Rita 2006 Bulletin of Volcanology, 6, 538-548.
  • Aulinas et al., 2011, Geologica Acta,9, 1,103-125.
  • Batistel et al., 2016, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 328, 222-229
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