Deep Groundwater Resources Individuation in Piedmont Plain (Northern Italy)

This paper is a synthesis of a preliminary litostratigraphical and structural study finalized to improve the deep aquifers knowledge in Piemonte (northern Italy). In detail the work concerns the Piemonte plain sector, that is the most important water reserve in the region. In this moment most wells take water in the first 200 m of aquifer; therefore, information about lower depths of aquifer are particularly scarce. In order to find exploitable aquifers, a general lithostratigraphical and hydrogeological schematization of the area was carried out about depths lower than those actually intercepted. Since the main aim of the study is to find groundwater for different use (drinking water, irrigation water, etc.), the surface between fresh and salt water was used as the deepest limit of this research. Lithostratigraphic studies allowed to detect various deformative structures, such as basins with sedimentary bearing-water successions. These successions, generated by sin and post-depositional tectonic processes, are thicker than 1000 meters. These potentially productive aquifers are present in pliocenic marine sands, in permeable levels of “Villafranchiano” sediments and in quaternary alluvional deposits. In the end it was observed that the fresh and salt water surface is mainly present in pliocenic sand deposits. However, because of this surface is independent of stratigraphic limits, the interface was also found in different deposits.