Abstract
The landscape of Murge Tarantine limestone ridge (southern Apulia, Italy) is marked by the presence of an isolated relief showing a singular shape and name, the Monte del Diavolo (i.e., the Devil’s Mount). The Monte del Diavolo is located in a very interesting area from a geological point of view since it shows an E–W trending high-fault scarp, the morphological effect of the right-lateral transtensive North Salento Fault Zone. The Monte del Diavolo is a small isolated conical relief reaching at its top 115 m above m.s.l.; it elevates about 20 m from the surrounding plain surface, stretching at about 95 m altitude. Its evolution has been influenced by the occurrence of strongly cemented breccia deposits, most likely due to cave roof collapse and calcite precipitation, which are more resistant to the karst denudation process than surrounding limestones. This paper would be the first step towards the cultural promotion of the Monte del Diavolo area, which is marked by geological and geomorphological peculiar features and by a relevant archaeological and natural heritage as well.
Highlights
Geotourism can be defined as “the provision of interpretative and service facilities for geosites and geomorphosites and their encompassing topography, together with their associated in situ and ex situ artefacts, to constituency-build for their conservation by generating appreciation, learning and research by and for current and future generations” [1] (p. 11)
This paper reports the results of the geomorphological analysis carried out in a coastal area of southern Apulia area which is marked by a singular isolated small relief, the Monte del Diavolo (Figure 1)
A small isolated relief, the Monte del Diavolo, marks the morphological district of Murge Tarantine, an area of great geological interest since it shows the morphological effects of the North Salento Fault
Summary
Geotourism can be defined as “the provision of interpretative and service facilities for geosites and geomorphosites and their encompassing topography, together with their associated in situ and ex situ artefacts, to constituency-build for their conservation by generating appreciation, learning and research by and for current and future generations” [1] (p. 11). At least from the perspective of tourism industry, the scenic component of geosites is important since modern geotourism provision meets geotourists’ needs by attracting them to particular localities with spectacular or readily-appreciated geomorphological features [3] This refers to landforms marked by intriguing, unusual or even bizarre shapes that justifies the “devil” name attributed to them by local communities or first explorers. Milano (1820), in his pioneering paper about the geology of this region [8], wrongly considered Monte del Diavolo relief a geological proof of past volcanic activity in southern Apulia He reported smoke coming from surficial fractures of the small relief as well as some strange lights; he compared the singular relief near Manduria village to the homonymous relict volcano placed in the Verona area and to the Fossa del Diavolo (i.e., the Devil’s Graben) at Lipari island, where, according to the local traditions, flames came out from a pothole.
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