Geological And Environmental Catastrophes In The Central Alps: An Integrated Approach In The Lake Como Region, Italy
by
Daniela Fanetti
Dipartimento di Scienze CC.FF.MM., Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Via Lucini 3, 22100, Como, Italy
Coauthors: S. Martin, A. M. Michetti, L. Vezzoli (Dipartimento di Scienze CC.FF.MM., Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Via Lucini 3, 22100, Como, Italy)

The Lake Como (or Lario) is located in Lombardia, Northern Italy, at an elevation of 198 m a.s.l., surrounded by steep mountain slopes up to ca. 2500 m a.s.l. high. It is the deepest Italian lake (410 m), with an extension of 145 km2, a volume of 23372 km3, and a catchment area of 4508 km2. The Lake Como is in a central position within the Alps, and its drainage basin correspond to one of the major morphological pathways between Northern and Southern Europe. This is obviously a strategic area from the economical point of view, because of both its peculiar cultural value and the presence of an inestimable water resource. Investigations conducted on peri-alpine lakes in the last decades demonstrated that their sedimentary infill contain archives of latest Quaternary climatic changes and tectonic deformation, including evidence for extreme hydrogeological and paleoseismic events. Occurrence of natural catastrophes within the catchment area of the Lake Como, such as very large landslides, floods and debris flows, is very well documented by historical and instrumental data. However, the Lake Como Holocene stratigraphy and morphology is inadequately known until now.

The comprehensive study of the Lake Como is now being conducted at the University of Insubria within the "Lario Project", partly funded by the INRM (Italian Institute for the Scientific and Technological Research on the Mountain), which involves several research groups in Italy and abroad along with local administrations of the Lombardia Region. On December 2001 Lake Como was surveyed using a state-of-the-art, high resolution, multibeam mapping system to provide an accurate picture of the lake floor morphology. This is the first time for a great lake in Italy, and one of the few cases in Europe, that this technique has been applied. In the next months we plan to complete the lake floor mapping, to conduct the geomorphic analyses and interpretation of the offshore data, and to initiate the field survey of selected segments of the surrounding mountain slopes. This should allow a first step toward the reconstruction of a catalogue of the Holocene environmental and geological catastrophes recorded in the Lake Como sediments and geomorphology. The first results will be presented during the conference.

Date received: April 16, 2002