May 2022
Day 1 - 26th April 2022
Big day of departure for the summer field mission. This time, only the CEREGE team needs to go to Italy. We leave at 8:30 am in a Kangoo from Aix-en-Provence after having loaded all the necessary equipment. A 10-hour drive awaits us to Celano in the Fucino basin, our accommodation. Even if the road is long, these hours are essential to prepare the mission, to review the last details and to organise ourselves.
Day 3 - 28th April 2022
Today, the French team is divided in two. On the one hand, those who are continuing the sampling and on the other hand those who are exploring the northern part of the Liri Fault. This is an obligatory step to understand the activity of this fault, which is very controversial among researchers. Some give it a fast speed and others do not; hence the importance of collecting additional data. This exploration is being carried out in partnership with Italian colleagues from the INGV and the IGAG to compare and discuss the different interpretations.
Day 5 - 30th April 2022
Another beautiful day ahead, the Italian colleagues have left for Rome. The French team goes hiking in the Abruzzo natural park to look for conglomerates. We found them at an altitude of over 1,500 metres, facing a magnificent view of the valley. These conglomerates are important because they mark a transition between the period when the sea occupied these regions and the period when the sea withdrew under the effect of climatic variations, giving way to fluvial deposits. The position of these conglomerates would therefore reflect the sea level at that time, about 5-6 million years ago.
Day 7 - 2nd May 2022
Last day in the field before the big return to France. It is on the Magnola fault that we go. It is the most important fault of the region and produces the most beautiful cumulative relief according to the project manager. 3 magnificent facets rise up in front of us.
© Photo and text : Manon Bachelet
Day 2 - 27th April 2022
We leave for the sampling site on the southern part of the Liri Fault, the fault mirror was located during the previous mission in October. After an exploration of the whole mirror, the section to be sampled is chosen. A colleague from the INGV joined the team to help us and carry out the photogrammetry of the area. The afternoon is devoted to cleaning the wall and installing climbing ropes to secure the researchers who will be sampling.
Day 4 - 29th April 2022
On the fourth day of the mission, we continue to work in two shifts. This is the last day for sampling. The wall has been sawed off with a disc cutter, and all that remains is to use a hammer and chisel to extract the ingots. The other team, together with the Italians, is looking for conglomerates (detrital rock composed of discernible pieces linked together by a natural sediment). The aim is to find conglomerates of the same nature on either side of known faults in order to calculate the difference in topography between the two.
Day 6 - 1st May 2022
For this day of exploration, a new colleague from CEREGE joined us. After a walk in the woods and the visit of some deer, the conglomerates are discovered. Some samples were taken to be analysed in the laboratories in Rome by sedimentology experts.
