Dinamica ed evoluzione climatologica delle grotte ghiacciaie : geomorfologia e geologia del quaternario

Ice deposits have a remarkable potentials to conserve climatic information. Ice cores give the most precise and direct records of some atmospheric parameters. These cores carry some evidences of the atmospheric composition and temperature change that characterized part of the climatic history. Hypogean ice deposits make ice caves an interesting field of study. Problems that are encountered during the studies of hypogean ice deposits are quite different from that of “classical glaciology”. To study this precious archive, both epigean and hypogean data should be incorporated. It is only by understanding the interactions of these two environmental conditions that is possible to give a significant paleoenvironmental interpretations. Hypogean and epigean microclimatic monitoring system were installed in Moncodeno (Grigna Settentrionale) in October 2004. The epigean meteorological stations record every hour air temperature, air humidity, wind direction and velocity and global solar radiation. Within the cave air temperature was recorded in seven distributed all along the section of the ice cave, where as air humidity was recorded in three stations. Air direction and velocity was recorded in one station by an ultrasonic anemometer. Moreover rock temperature was recorded at two depths, 10 cm and 40 cm, and ice temperature on the surface. In this work data of the first monitoring year (October 25, 2004 – October 24, 2005) are presented. Epigean and hypogean data are studied and compared in relation to the seasonal variations. A conceptual model will be forwarded to explain the existing conditions manifested in the LO LC 1650 “Abisso sul Margine dell’alto Bregai” Ice Cave. In this study, two different methods applied on two different systems of ice deposits are described. These are; the ice deposit of LO LC 1650 “Abisso sul margine dell’alto Bregai” in Moncodeno (Grigna Settentrionale, Italy), and the ice deposit of Focul viu in Apuseni Mountains (Romania). Evolutional histories of these ice deposits are quite different, i.e., the LO LC 1650 is an endogenous ice deposits where as the Focul viu is an exogenous ice deposits.