Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
division of mountains: Primitive - hard, comprising non-fossiliferous
crystalline rocks; Flo¨tzgebirge - composed of stratified, water-laid,
often fossiliferous rocks; and Alluvial - younger mountains that com-
prised unconsolidated sediments or recent volcanic materials.
Giovanni Arduino was an Italian who worked at different peri-
ods in his life as an inspector of mines or as an agricultural advisor.
Born in the village of Caprino, near the beautiful city of Verona where
he was also educated, Arduino became fascinated with the natural
landscape around him, and began to read the geological writings of
Woodward and Burnett amongst others. However, according to Frank
Dawson Adams, he did not learn much geology from these authors,
and so began to examine the local geology for himself in an attempt to
learn more about the subject. He really could not have chosen a better
field area: he had the rocks of the neighbouring Alps and the sediments
of the flat plain of the River Po to inspire him (Figure
5.4
). No doubt he
was also familiar with the volcanic regions of the area that was to
become known as Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - Naples and the Island
of Sicily. From the age of eighteen he was employed in various mining
regions as a mining inspector. Although he did not publish exten-
sively, he did correspond widely: his letters hold much valuable infor-
mation on geology, and give an insight into the development of his
theories and of his understanding of earth processes and the origin and
constitution of mountains. Arduino's major contribution to stratigra-
phy was in his Due lettere sopra varie osservazioni naturali published
in 1760, in which he presented a tripartite classification of rocks into
'ordini' - Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. The Primary sequences
were the basal cores of mountains, which were largely altered meta-
morphic successions that were often folded and criss-crossed with
veins of mineral-bearing white quartz. Such veins may contain con-
siderable proportions of base metals such as lead and zinc, and minor
percentages of the precious metals gold and silver. The Secondary
sequence comprised fossiliferous limestones and marls, as well as
marbles of various tints and hues, while the Tertiary were younger
limestones, marls and siltstones formed into the lower mountains, or
