Geological-environmental routes in the pleasant lands from the Vezzeno Valley to the Stirone

The areas between the Vezzeno Valley and the Stirone Valley have a highly diverse landscape characterised by the combination of woods, vineyards, contrabbages and chalanchi. In addition to habitats of high natural value and villages of extraordinary beauty, this area retains a rare and unique geo-palaeontological heritage that documents an important part of the history of the Earth and the geological evolution of Emilia-Romagna. Among the chalks engraved in the Blue Argille of the Pliocene and the overwhelming arenaries of Castel’Arquato, numerous fossil remains of the organisms populating the pliocenic Gulf, a sea arm that occupied the area of the current Po Plain, were found. Paleontological research, launched in this area since the end of 700, has made it possible to identify here the typology of Piacenziano, that is to say, the succession of layers which, at international level, is the reference for comparisons and correlations over this period of the history of the Earth. Piacenziano is a Pliocene plan which identifies a period of between 3,6 and 2,6 million years ago, characterised by a deterioration of the climate in our hemisphere and the disappearance of many tropical species in the Mediterranean area.