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educational center, which was founded in an abandoned medieval Another set of presentations at the meeting dealt with the tre-
hamlet near Apiro in 1992. Fifty attendees from eleven countries mendous advancements in the studies on the Pleistocene and
(Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Italy, Netherlands, Holocene history that focused on the extraordinary speleologic
Norway, Sweden, UK, and USA), including seven students, pre- record of the Frasassi hypogenic cave complex (i.e., karstic geo-
sented original research and reviews in the form of keynote, oral, morphology, slack water deposits, extremophile sulfidic ecosys-
and poster presentations, covering specific subjects related to top- tems, speleo-archaeology). Interdisciplinary studies by interna-
ics in tectonics and structural geology, integrated stratigraphy and tional teams of speleo-geologists, geochemists, radioisotopic and
astronomical tuning, extraterrestrial event stratigraphy, and cosmogenic geochronologists, biologists, and archaeologists were
Quaternary geology and geo-bio speleology. presented at the meeting.
A variety of studies about the recent tectono-seismic and struc- Meeting participants enjoyed not only a vibrant three-day con-
tural history of the still active Umbria-Marche Apennines (as is ference at the historic Teatro Mestica in the medieval hilltop town
exemplified by the recent seismic activity in 2016) were pre- of Apiro, complete with local gourmet lunches, and a big anniver-
sented. This included investigations by international teams of sary celebration in Coldigioco, but also two field trips to classic
stratigraphers through long and continuous stretches of the geological sites (to Gubbio, where the K-Pg asteroid impact
Umbria-Marche sedimentary succession, focusing on the integra- hypothesis started, and to the Frasassi caves, the largest show
tion of bio-magneto-chemostratigraphy and radioisotopic geo- caves in Italy); an optional field trip to Massignano near Monte
chronology with astronomical tuning via multiproxy cyclostrati- Conero, where the GSSP of the Eocene-Oligocene Boundary is
graphic analysis. located, was also well attended.
Some of the most significant and widely recognized results of ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
the investigations at the Umbria-Marche sedimentary succession
during the past 25 years, with the support of the Geological The meeting conveners are grateful to many local helpers for important
Observatory of Coldigioco, concerned the importance that extra- assistance, to the city of Apiro for making the theater available, to the spon-
terrestrial events, such as meteoritic/asteroid impacts, comet sors, and to all the participants, but we want to specifically thank our
showers, and asteroidal breakups, played in the biologic, environ- spouses Paula and Dona for unfailing support.
mental, and climatic changes of planet Earth. Several papers on
this topic were presented at the Penrose Conference.
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14 GSA Today | March-April 2018
