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250 Million Years of Earth History in Central Italy: Celebrating
25 Years of the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco

25–29 September 2017 • Apiro, Marche Region, Italy

CONVENERS: research approaches, and ultimately to discontinuities in scien-
tific thinking. The Umbria-Marche Apennines are a foreland
Alessandro Montanari, Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco, fold-and-thrust belt, which was formed in the latest phase of the
I-62020 Frontale di Apiro (MC), Italy; sandro.coldigioco@ Alpine-Himalayan orogenesis. These mountains are entirely
gmail.com made of marine sedimentary rocks of the so-called Umbria-
Christian Koeberl, Department of Lithospheric Research, Marche Succession, which represents a continuous record of the
University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria, geotectonic evolution of an epeiric sea from the Early Triassic to
and Natural History Museum, Burgring 7, A-1010 Vienna, the Pleistocene. Studies of these rocks have led to important
Austria; christian.koeberl@univie.ac.at discoveries, particularly about major events that have punctuated
the history of Earth, such has the Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic
Cosponsored by GSA Foundation; Barringer Crater Company; Events (OAE1 and OAE2), the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg)
Associazione Le Montagne di San Francesco Boundary Event (with the global mass extinction caused by a
catastrophic extraterrestrial impact), the events across the
Central Italy has been a cradle of geology for centuries. Since Eocene-Oligocene transition from a greenhouse to an icehouse
the beginning of the last century, the Triassic to Miocene car- world, and the Messinian Salinity Crisis of the Mediterranean,
bonate succession exposed along the valleys of the Umbria and just to name the most famous ones.
Marche Apennines of Italy has been a fertile playground for gen-
erations of earth scientists, particularly paleontologists, sedi- The objective of the Penrose Conference that was held in late
mentologists, stratigraphers, geophysicists, and structural geolo- September 2017 in Apiro in the Marche Region, central Italy,
gists from all over the world. Here pioneering studies in the most was to present an updated vision of 250 million years of Earth
disparate disciplines of the earth sciences have led to the under- history as recorded in the sedimentary succession of the northern
standing of novel principles and natural phenomena of the past, Apennine orogeny in central Italy. The occasion for the timing
the development of new methodologies and experimental of the conference was the 25th anniversary of the Geological
Observatory of Coldigioco, an independent research and

Group photo (courtesy D. Jalufka) in the historic Teatro Mestica in Apiro, Italy. Participants: Walter Alvarez, Milly Alvarez, Drew Barringer, Massimiliano
Barchi, David Bice, Samuele Boschi, David Bowen, Megan Bowen, Lung Chan, Lily Chan, Nate Church, Philippe Claeys, Rodolfo Coccioni, Maurizio
Conte, Dave Eby, Ken Farley, Markus Fiebig, Luigi Folco, Marco Franceschi, Fabrizio Frontalini, Anthony Frushour, Diana Galassi, Peter Geiser, Gabriele
Giuli, Bill Glass, Christian Koeberl, Paul Kopsick, Tvrtko Korbar, Davide Lenaz, Sarah Lucas, Steve Lundblad, Ellinor Martin, Jenn Macalady, Maurizio
Mainiero, Marco Menichetti, Francesco Mirabella, Ross Mitchell, Alessandro Montanari, Frank Pazzaglia, Gaia Pignocchi, Ann Pizzorusso, Michael
Rampino, Birger Schmitz, Clare Schneider, David Shimabukuro, Matthias Sinnesael, Jan Smit, Enrico Tavarnelli, Peter Ward, John Weber.

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