Virtual tour of past environmental and climate change: the Messinian succession of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin

The multidisciplinary research project “PROGEO-Piemonte” aims to achieve a new conceptual and operational discipline in the management of the geological heritage of the Piemonte region (NW Italy). One of the 9 strategic geothematic areas of the project addresses a controversial scientific theme, that of climate and environmental change, by analyzing the record of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in Piemonte. This palaeoceanographic event, which occurred about 6 Ma ago during the late Messinian, was characterized by dramatic palaeobiological, palaeoenvironmental, and palaeoclimatic changes that affected the entire Mediterranean area. In the Piemonte region, Messinian rocks outcrop in the Tertiary Piedmont Basin; they record the three stages of the Messinian Salinity Crisis and the correlative environmental and climate changes. We propose to the general public a virtual geological tour of the main outcrops showing the evolution of this event, to be hosted on the PROGEO-Piemonte website and accessible via mobile devices on-site or at home. The web-based digital tour will cover several geosites where the main steps of the Messinian Salinity Crisis are best recorded; it will integrate on-site information available through panels along with web-accessible complementary information; moreover, it will allow the virtual visit to remote or restricted sites (e.g. active quarries) in a digital environment. The focus on environmental and climate changes that occurred during the Messinian Salinity Crisis will improve public knowledge and awareness of environmental modification and past climate variability and will address whether such changes could happen again in the future.