The Majella National Park: An Aspiring UNESCO Geopark

Elena Liberatoscioli,Giancarlo Boscaino,Etta Patacca Scandone,Silvano Agostini,Adele Garzarella

doi:10.3390/geosciences8070256

Abstract

Majella National Park is located in the central Apennines (Italy), in a vast mountainous area of about 740 km2. Owing to the complex geological history of the Majella Massif and surrounding areas, it features many different landforms. Woodlands rich in water characterize the wide tectonic depression of Caramanico, which separates the rounded gentle profile of the Majella to the east from the impervious steep slope of the Morrone Mt. to the west. Bare pitted highlands, like lunar landforms, characterize the top of the Majella (i.e., Femmina Morta Valley) shaped by flowing ice that long ago covered the higher parts of the massif. Sedimentary structures and fossil content recovered in carbonates attest to a long period of sedimentation in warm, shallow-marine environments, revealing that the Majella and the surrounding carbonate mountains looked, approximately from 140 to 7 Ma, like the present-day Bahamas and Persian Gulf. The Park hosts at least 95 geosites, some of which (22) are well-known in the international literature because of their scientific relevance. In addition, its natural and cultural wealth, deeply fused together with geoheritage, preserves several features of national and world rarity. Therefore, the Park Authority decided to put forward its territory as a candidate to become part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Geoparks Network.

Highlights

The aim of this paper is to present the geological peculiarities of the Majella National Park (MNP) together with other natural and cultural main wealths, as well as the history of the park and its network of facilities for tourists, features that motivated the Park Authority to propose it as a candidate to become a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
The published works of Wimbledon, Gray, Henriques, geosites subjects were very important while writing the Majella aspiring Geopark dossierRuban, needed to Bradbury, Habibi and other authors [1,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13] allowed work to start on the aforementioned dossier gain admittance to the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network (GGN)
The published works of Wimbledon, Gray, Henriques, Ruban, from an important and interesting framework of information and rules for selecting the geosites of Bradbury, Habibi and other authors [1,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13] allowed work to start on the aforementioned dossier the Majella National Park

Summary

Introduction

Geoconservation concerns the protection of peculiar places on Earth, that represent open windows on the past [1]. It was first introduced among the other conservation disciplines by the European. The main focus of the Geosites Project, promoted by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in 1994, was to involve the global geological community in providing inventory and data. Geosciences 2018, 8, 256 to support national and global outreach to protect geological resources for scientific and education objectives. In 1995, ProGeo promoted a project aimed to compile a list of European geosites. At the end of the same year, IUGS, with the support of UNESCO, promoted the project of implementing a global inventory and related database

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Conclusion