The survey for subsurface exploration of Pianosa Island has begun. Researchers of the Institute of Geosciences and Georesources of the National Research Council (IGG-CNR) are engaged at the Research Base Pianosa-CNR to support, from a technical and scientific point of view, the first stratigraphic continuous core drilling survey being carried out on the island of Pianosa.
The drilling operations, carried out by the company MESA srl of Carrara (MS), commissioned by the Municipality of Campo of Elba Island, began yesterday, February 17, and will continue for at least another 5 days with the goal of reaching a depth of 100 m from ground level.
On the basis of the results of hydrogeological studies conducted by IGG in collaboration with the Tuscan Archipelago National Park and the DST-UniPI, the survey was designed to obtain useful information to improve knowledge of the subsurface, with particular reference to the hydrostructural structure that regulates the water supply in the aquifer, as the only resource for water supply on the island. This subsurface drilling represents an important step in the history of geological knowledge on the island, as continuous drilling had never been performed before. The cores deriving from the survey will be studied in detail with different analytical instruments and the results will be interpreted in a geological/hydrogeological key, thanks to a productive collaboration between IGG-CNR and the Departments of Earth Sciences of the University of Siena and the University of Pisa.
For further information Marco Doveri (CNR-IGG, marco.doveri@igg.cnr.it)