Outreach and public engagement of Italian Departments of Earth Sciences

Leading academic institutions, governments, and funders of research across the world have spent the last few decades fretting publicly about the need for scientists and research organisations to engage more widely with the public and be open about their research. Within a frame of growing universities competition and marketisation, global literature asserts that the role of public communication has changed from a virtue to a duty for scientists in many countries and disciplines. However, knowledge about what research institutions are doing and what factors drive their “going public” is still very limited. An attempt to examine the public engagement efforts at the departmental level has been made with a recent cross-national study of thousands of research institutes in different countries. Notwithstanding this, the public communication of university departments within the Italian academic context is still poorly understood. The present thesis aims to investigate cultures of science communication at the level of research institutes and to define key concepts of public communication of Italian Departments of Earth Sciences. By focusing on a very narrow and complete sample of research institutes in Italy (n = 8, 100% response rate), I investigate how public engagement varies in intensity, type of activities and target audiences across departments. Three benchmark findings emerge: i) public communication remains far from being fully instituted and taken-for-granted across research institutes; ii) variation in communication is associated with institutional commitment to public communication, although culture and strategy, rather than available funding, seems to play a key role; iii) capacity building and commitment of resources are generally increasing. Overall, data point to a growing national phenomenon and a potential change in the culture of Italian academic institutions to open up their research to unspecific publics at the departmental level, by boosting their commitment in terms of both funding and communication staff. Future research should monitor this evolution by investigating the implications of this professionalisation for science communication and the narratives that emerge from research institutes. Due to the limited size of the sample investigated, a robust statistical analysis was not possible. Thus, to check whether findings presented here also occur in other types of research units, and to observe the future evolution of public communication at the departmental level of Italian universities, further investigation is needed

CaSiO3-walstromite inclusions in super-deep diamonds

Diamonds are considered the unique way to trap and convey real fragments of deep material to the surface of our planet. Over the last thirty years, great strides have been made in understanding of Earth\u2019s lower mantle, mainly thanks to technological and instrumental advances; nevertheless, it is only in the last two decades that a whole range of inclusion parageneses derived from the lower mantle was discovered in diamonds from S\ue3o Luiz (Brazil) (Kaminsky, 2008 and references therein), thereby establishing a \u201cwindow\u201d into the lower mantle. These so-called super-deep diamonds form at depths greater than lithospheric diamonds, more precisely between 300 and 800 km depth, and contain mostly ferropericlase, enstatite (believed to be derived from MgSi-perovskite) and CaSiO3- walstromite (believed to be derived from CaSiO3-perovskite). Even though CaSiO3 not only adopts the perovskite structure with increased pressure and temperature, but also it is considered the dominant Ca-bearing phase in the Earth\u2019s lower mantle (Tamai and Yagi, 1989), at the present day there are no reliable literature data on the pressure at which CaSiO3 crystallizes within diamonds. In order to obtain for the first time a pressure of formation value for CaSiO3-walstromite, several inclusions still trapped in a diamond coming from Juina (Mato Grosso, Brazil) were investigated both by in-situ microRaman spectroscopy and in-situ single-crystal X-ray diffraction. First, we applied \u201csingle-inclusion elastic barometry\u201d as improved by Angel et al. (2014) to determine the pressure of formation of the diamond-inclusion pairs. Starting from the maximum remnant pressure value ever reported (Joswig et al., 2003) and adopting the thermoelastic parameters already present in literature (Swamy and Dubrovinsky, 1997; Liu et al., 2012), we obtained an appar- ent entrapment pressure of 3c7.1 GPa, corresponding to 3c250 km, at 1500 K. The presence of fractures around the inclusions indicates this is a minimum estimate, and it is possible that the entrapment pressure falls at least into the stability field of Ca2SiO4-larnite + CaSi2O5-titanite. In support of this hypothesis we secondly compared our Raman spectra with reference spectra of the same phases obtained from an experimental product of Gasparik et al. (1994). Our preliminary results indicate in at least one inclusion the coexistence of CaSiO3-walstromite + Ca2SiO4-larnite, suggesting that CaSiO3-walstromite forms in sub-lithospheric conditions from the back transfor- mation from CaSiO3-perovskite. Further investigations are in progress in order to find evidence of CaSi2O5-titanite in these inclusions

Depth of Formation of Ferropericlase Included in Super-Deep Diamonds

Super-deep diamonds are believed to have formed at depths of at least 300 km depth (Harte, 2010). A common mineral inclusion in these diamonds is ferropericlase, (Mg,Fe)O (see Kaminsky, 2012 and references therein). Ferropericlase (fPer) is the second most abundant mineral in the lower mantle, comprising approximately 16\u201320 wt% (660 to 2900 km depth), and inclusions of fPer in diamond are often considered to indicate a lower-mantle origin (Harte et al., 1999). Samples from S\ue3o Luiz/Juina, Brazil, are noteworthy for containing nanometer-sized magnesioferrite (Harte et al., 1999; Wirth et al., 2014; Kaminsky et al., 2015; Palot et al., 2016). Based upon a phase diagram valid for 1 atm, such exsolutions would place the origin of this assemblage in the uppermost part of the lower mantle. However, a newly reported phase diagram for magnesioferrite demonstrates that the latter is not stable at such pressures and, thus, it cannot exsolve directly from fPer at lower-mantle conditions (Uenver-Thiele et al., 2017). Here we report the investigation of two fPer inclusions, extracted from a single S\ue3o Luiz diamond, by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy. Both techniques showed micrometer-sized exsolutions of magnesioferrite within the two fPers. We also completed elastic geobarometry (see Angel et al., 2015), which determined an estimate for the depth of entrapment of the two ferropericlase \u2013 diamond pairs. In the temperature range between 1273 and 1773 K, pressures varied between 9.88 and 12.34 GPa (325-410 km depth) for one inclusion and between 10.69 and 13.16 GPa (350-440 km depth) for the other one. These results strengthen the hypothesis that solitary fPer inclusions might not be reliable markers for a lower-mantle provenance

Synchrotron M\uf6ssbauer Source technique for in situ measurement of iron-bearing inclusions in natural diamonds

Natural diamonds containing silicate, oxide and sulfide inclusions are a popular focus of investigation as they uniquely provide a window into the conditions of the Earth\u2019s interior at extreme depths. Recent discoveries based on investigations of deep diamonds have considerably improved our knowledge of the Earth\u2019s deep carbon and water cycles and the oxygen fugacity of the Earth\u2019s interior. Super deep diamonds are those that are believed to have formed at depths of at least 300 km and some evidence suggests depths of at least 800 km. A common inclu- sion in these diamonds is ferropericlase, (Mg,Fe2+)O. Ferropericlase is the second most abundant mineral in the lower mantle, constituting up to about 20 mol% of its volume. The Fe3+/Fetot of ferropericlase is a strong func- tion of oxygen fugacity, and provides a measure of the most recent redox conditions under which it equilibrated. Conventional M\uf6ssbauer spectroscopy using a 57Co point source has been used in the past decades to study the Fe3+/Fetot content in inclusions still trapped in their diamond\u2019s host, however its limitations are the low spatial resolution (not below 3c100 \u3bcm2) and the long acquisition time. The Flank method was also proposed, it is fast, it has high spatial resolution (down to 3c20 \u3bcm2) but it measures the bulk value of Fe3+/Fetot since it cannot distinguish between different phases. An ideal method to measure Fe3+/Fetot values of ferropericlase would com- bine (1) the advantage of M\uf6ssbauer spectroscopy to distinguish Fe3+ in different phases and measure inclusions while still in the diamond, with (2) the advantage of the Flank method to conduct rapid measurements with high spatial resolution. The only method that offers the possibility to satisfy all these requirements is the Synchrotron M\uf6ssbauer Source (SMS). We used the SMS for the first time, to study the iron content and iron distribution in ferropericlase inclusion still contained within its diamond host from Juina (Brazil). This definitive non-destructive technique with extremely high spatial resolution ( 3c15 \u3bcm2) enabled measurements in multiple regions of the 150 7 150 \u3bcm2 inclusion to be sampled and showed that while Fe3+/Fetot values in ferropericlase were below the detection limit (0.02) overall, there was a magnetic component whose abundance varied systematically across the inclusion. Hyperfine parameters of the magnetic component are consistent with magnesioferrite, and the absence of superparamagnetism allows the minimum particle size to be estimated as 3c30 nm. Bulk Fe3+/Fetot values are similar to those reported for other ferropericlase inclusions from Juina. Their variation across the inclusion can provide constraints on its history, and ultimate on the deep carbon processes behind diamonds formation and their exhumation from the transition zone and shallow lower mantle regions

Inclusions in super-deep diamonds

Super-deep diamonds may originate from a depth of between 300 and 800 km, although their precise depth of origin remains uncertain. When growing, they trap other minerals from their surroundings, which remain unaltered in their diamond capsule on their journey up to the surface of our planet. Through the study of these inclusions it is thus possible to reveal the secrets of deep unseen environments. In this study we aim to determine the formation pressure of super- deep diamonds for the first time by characterising two types of inclusions: CaSiO3-walstromite and ferropericlase. To achieve this goal we investigated CaSiO3-walstromite inclusions by a combination of in situ single-crystal X-ray diffraction, \u201csingle-inclusion elastic barometry\u201d and in situ micro-Raman spectroscopy and we obtained an apparent entrapment pressure of 3c7.1 GPa, corresponding to 3c250 km, at a temperature of 1500 K. In addition, thermodynamic calculations suggested that single inclusions of CaSiO3-walstromite cannot derive from CaSiO3-perovskite. Preliminary X-ray micro-tomography and nuclear resonance scattering data were also collected on ferropericlase-bearing diamonds in order to detect micro-fractures around the inclusions and to determine whether the Fe3+/ 11Fe ratios are in agreement with lower mantle values or not

First in-situ measurements of Fe3+/Fetot for oxides and silicates included in natural diamonds with Synchrotron M\uf6ssbauer Source

Diamond is the paramount phase to understand the evolution and the physico- chemical condition of the deep portions of the Earth\u2019s mantle, mainly because: (i) it is the stable phase through which carbon is stored in the deep mantle for long geologic time; (ii) it does contain and preserve different types of inclusions (fluid, mineral, etc.); (iii) it is the only material sampling the mantle to depths of 800 km (e.g. Harte, 2010), although the majority of the mined diamonds worldwide derive from shallower depth (150 to 250 km). The study of mineral inclusions trapped in diamonds allows the retrieval of different pieces of information about the Earth\u2019s interior and its active geodynamics, providing important clues on the initiation of subduction processes (Shirey & Richardson, 2011; Smart et al., 2016), tracking the transfer of material through the mantle transition zone (Stachel et al., 2005; Walter et al., 2011), recording the timing of ingress of fluids to the continental lithosphere (e.g. Shirey et al., 2004), preserving carbonatitic fluid that trigger deep mantle melting (e.g. Schrauder & Navon, 1994; Kopylova et al., 2010), providing samples of primordial noble gases (e.g. Ozima & Igarashi, 2000), and capturing the redox state of the mantle (e.g. Rohrbach & Schmidt, 2011). Unfortunately the majority of the techniques used so far to study the mineral inclusions are destructive. It is only in the last decade that the studies on inclusions in diamond have started to use non-destructive techniques, providing new information which would otherwise be lost using earlier destructive techniques. Such an example is the rim fluids around inclusions in diamonds. In this study we present details of the experimental setup on the determination of Fe3+/Fetot ratios of mineral inclusions whilst still within the diamonds by a non-destructive approach using the Synchrotron M\uf6ssbauer Source (SMS; Potapkin et al., 2012) at the Nuclear Resonance beamline SOURCE ID18 (R\ufcffer & Chumakov, 1996), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble. The extremely small X-ray spot size (10 7 15 \u3bcm2) is perfectly suited for our purposes as some inclusions are smaller than 30-50 \u3bcm and the Fe3+/Fetot variation over the same inclusion cannot be performed by using standard laboratory radioactive sources because of the larger beam size. The average collection time for thicker inclusions (~ 200 \u3bcm) was 2 hours per spectrum, whilst the smallest inclusion (~ 30 730 730 \u3bcm3) required a collection time of approximately 10-12 hours in order to get a spectrum with nicely distinguishable features and a high signal-to-noise ratio. In general, application to a suite of silicate and oxide inclusions in diamonds produced comparable results with respect to those obtained using conventional M\uf6ssbauer sources (e.g. McCammon et al., 2004)

Crystallographic relationships between diamond and its inclusions

The study of the crystallographic orientations of minerals included in diamonds can provide an insight into the mechanisms of their incorporation and the timing of their formation relative to the host diamond. The reported occurrence of non-trivial orientations for some minerals in some diamonds, suggesting an epitactic relationship, has long been considered to reflect contemporaneous growth of the diamond and the inclusion (= syngenesis). Correct interpretation of such orientations requires (i) a statistically significant data set, i.e. crystallographic data for single and multiple inclusions in a large number of diamonds, and (ii) a robust data-processing method, capable of removing ambiguities derived from the high symmetry of the diamond and the inclusion. We have developed software which performs such processing, starting from crystallographic orientation matrixes obtained by X-ray diffractometry. Preliminary studies indicate a wide variety of trends in the orientations of different inclusion phases in diamonds. In contrast to previous claims, olivine inclusions in lithospheric diamonds from Udachnaya do not show any preferred orientations with respect to their diamond hosts, but multiple inclusions in a single diamond often show very similar orientations within a few degrees (Nestola et al. 2014). Chromite (spinel) inclusions exhibit a strong tendency for a single (111) plane of each inclusion to be parallel to a (111) plane of their diamond host, but without any statistically significant orientation of the crystallographic axes a, b, and c. By contrast, 7 inclusions of ferropericlase studied in 2 different super deep diamonds (four inclusions in one diamond and three inclusions in the second diamond) from Brazil all exhibit the same orientation with their axes practically coincident with those of diamonds regardless of the position and the shape of the inclusions. The implications of these observations for the mechanisms of diamond growth will be explored

Tetragonal Almandine-Pyrope Phase, TAPP:Finally a name for it, the new mineral jeffbenite

Jeffbenite, ideally Mg3Al2Si3O8, previously known as tetragonal-almandine-pyrope-phase ('TAPP'), has been characterized as a new mineral from an inclusion in an alluvial diamond from São Luiz river, Juina district of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Its density is 3.576 g/cm³ and its microhardness is ∼7. Jeffbenite is uniaxial (–) with refractive indexes ω = 1.733(5) and ε = 1.721(5). The crystals are in general transparent emerald green.This research was supported by the ERC Starting Grant 2012 to FN (agreement no. 307322) and NERC grant NE/J008583/1 to MJW and SCK. We are grateful to Chris Smith and Galina Bulanova for access to the Collier-4 diamond RC2-7

Depth of formation of super-deep diamonds

Diamonds, and the mineral inclusions they trap during growth, are pristine samples from the mantle that reveal processes in the deep Earth, provided the depth of formation of an inclusion-diamond pair being known. The majority of diamonds are lithospheric, while the depth of origin of super-deep diamonds (SDDs), which represent only 6% of the total, is uncertain. SDDs are considered to be sub-lithospheric, with formation from 300 to 800 km depth, on the basis of the inclusions trapped within them, which are believed to be the products of retrograde transformation from lower-mantle or transition-zone precursors. This Ph.D. project aims to obtain the real depth of formation of SDDs by studying the most common mineral phases enclosed within them by non-destructive methods. We have studied about 40 diamonds with such inclusion phases as CaSiO3-walstromite or ferropericlase using in-house single-crystal X-ray diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy as well as field emission gun-scanning electron microscopy, synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy and synchrotron Mössbauer source at outside Institutions. In addition, laser-heating diamond-anvil cell experiments were performed on a synthetic Ti-free jeffbenite to determine if the absence of Ti extends the stability field of such mineral compared to previous studies. Finally, elastic geobarometry has been completed both on ferropericlase and CaSiO3- walstromite, in this last case together with thermodynamic and first-principles calculations. One of our principal results suggests that CaSiO3-walstromite may be considered a sub-lithospheric mineral, but retrograde transformation from a CaSiO3-perovskite precursor is only possible if the diamond around the inclusion expands in volume by ~30%. Moreover, high-pressure and high-temperature experiments indicate that Ti-free jeffbenite could be directly incorporated into diamond in the transition zone or uppermost lower mantle and therefore this mineral may represent a high-pressure marker to detect SDDs. Finally, the observation of magnesioferrite exsolutions within ferropericlase, combined with elastic geobarometry results, strengthen the hypothesis that single ferropericlase inclusions might not be reliable markers for a diamond lower-mantle provenance.I diamanti e le inclusioni minerali da essi intrappolate durante l’accrescimento sono campioni inalterati provenienti dal mantello terreste che possono fornire importanti informazioni sull’interno della Terra, a patto di conoscerne la reale profondità di formazione. La maggior parte dei diamanti sono litosferici, mentre la profondità di formazione dei diamanti super-profondi (DSS), che rappresentano solo il 6% del totale, è ancora incerta. Le inclusioni in essi contenute sono ritenute essere i prodotti di trasformazione retrograda da precursori stabili nel mantello inferiore o nella zona di transizione e, sulla base di ciò, si pensa che i DSS si formino in condizioni sub-litosferiche, tra 300 e 800 km di profondità. L’obiettivo di questa tesi è ottenere la reale profondità di formazione dei DSS tramite lo studio non distruttivo delle più comuni inclusioni in essi racchiuse. Abbiamo studiato circa 40 diamanti contenenti CaSiO3-walstromite o ferropericlasio utilizzando la diffrazione a raggi X a cristallo singolo, la spettroscopia micro-Raman, la microscopia elettronica a scansione con sorgente ad emissione di campo, la tomografia a raggi X in luce di sincrotrone e la spettroscopia Mössbauer in luce di sincrotrone. In più, sono stati eseguiti degli esperimenti in cella a incudine di diamante mediante riscaldamento laser sulla jeffbenite sintetica allo scopo di verificare se l’assenza di Ti estende il suo campo di stabilità rispetto a studi precedenti. Infine, la geobarometria elastica è stata applicata sia sul ferropericlasio che sulla CaSiO3-walstromite, in quest’ultimo caso combinata con calcoli termodinamici e ab initio. Uno dei principali risultati suggerisce che la CaSiO3-walstromite sia sub-litosferica, ma che una trasformazione retrograda dalla CaSiO3-perovskite sia possibile solo se il diamante si espande del ~30%. Inoltre, gli esperimenti in alta pressione e temperatura indicano che la jeffbenite povera di Ti sia stabile nella zona di transizione o all’inizio del mantello inferiore, pertanto può essere considerata una fase indicatrice per i DSS. Infine, la presenza di essoluzioni di magnesioferrite nelle inclusioni di ferropericlasio, insieme coi risultati della geobarometria elastica, suggeriscono che tali inclusioni non possano, da sole, rappresentare un’origine dei diamanti nel mantello inferiore

Ricerche biostratigrafiche nella sezione medio-triassica di Rio Pala Lunga (Forni di Sotto, Udine).

The main purpose of this thesis is to define biostratigraphically the fauna collected at the Rio della Pala Lunga, located around the Mount Clapsavon, Carnia, as suggested by researchers working at the Friulian Museum of Natural History. During the field investigation, more than 50 macrofossils were collected and successively cleaned, restored and classified, recognizing 14 different taxa belonging to the class Cephalopoda, 12 of which to the subclass Ammonoidea and 2 to the subclass Coleoidea; 3 belonging to the class Bivalvia and 1 to the class Gastropoda. Studying ammonoid taxa, the collected fauna has been attributed to the regoledanus Subzone, Upper Ladinian in age (Middle Triassic), in agreement with similar ammonoid associations collected in other areas of the Southern Alps