The field trip to die for-Volcano, Vino, Veneto

Continuing the tradition of overseas excursions at the University of Ballarat, a group of 18 students, staff and industry geologists traveled to Italy to embark on a geological field trip entitled "Italia 2000:Volcano, Vino, Veneto".

The School of Science and Engineering has conducted overseas geological trips since 1989 as they provide participants with a taste of geology and culture in a radically different social and physical environment.

So why Italy? If food, wine, history and culture are not a sufficient answer, perhaps active volcanoes, the Dolomites, the Alps and environmental impacts in Venice must go some way to explaining our choice.

The trip began in Milan with time to view the largest gothic church in Italy, practice our burgeoning language skills and prepare ourselves for the Alps. We then moved on to Lake Como, its postcard landscape shaped by Quaternary glaciers, making it the deepest lake in Italy. Using Como as a base we investigated the stratigraphy of the Southern Alps particularly the Mesozoic oil targets and some spectacular marbles. Our excursions included a trip to one of the smallest and most picturesque conservation parks in Switzerland dedicated to both biological, geological and cultural heritage.
After the Alps we moved east to the Dolomites. Using Trento as a base we completed the Dos Capel walk with the help of geologists from the Museo Civico Geologicia e Etnografia. This is a spectacular geological walk through ignimbrites, sandstones, fossiliferous shales, dolomites and limestones spanning 270 million years of our Earth's history. The students task for this location was to write the first English geological guide to the walk.

Writing the guide was made challenging by the extreme cold-but rewarding as it will be incorporated into the walking guides for the area and presented the students with geology they had never seen before. The Dolomite experience extended to the Val Gardena and a walk starting at 2000m.

With brief stops to assess the environmental health of Venice (still beautiful in decline) and the building stones of Florence-remarkable in their diversity representing a variety of marbles and sandstones from all over Italy. Of course there was a necessary side trips to the Uffizzi before heading south to commence the Volcanological portion of the trip.

An active volcano is an awesome experience both personally and scientifically. Viewing a collection of modern and historic monitoring devices at the Vesuvius Volcanological observatory, we started to consider the science behind volcanos and the hazards they pose. The observatory has extensive evacuation protocol, the significance of which became very clear with our visit to Pompeii. The walk up Mt Vesuvius was a somewhat surreal experience with kiosk booths and tourist operators dotted between the fumaroles all the way to the top.

Having wetted our appetites for active volcanoes we headed south to Sicily to scale Etna. We took the car ferry from Villa San Giovanni to Messina and drove off into the Sicilian hills. Our base was an ancient castle overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. One the first day we examined the lava flows around Mt Etna and later ascended the volcano. I have to stress that this is an active volcano and students were not compelled to go all the way. For those who did the acrid smell, ground rumbles, view and fear made for a genuine top ten of geological experiences.

Continuing with the theme of ancient civilizations and their geological links, we are now in the early stages of planning the next overseas field trip. ... Peru for 2002.