Sedimentology, mineralogy, and petrology of the pre-Pliocene sediments drilled at ODP Sites 652 and 654 in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Leg 107) have been studied with emphasis on the lower Messinian to pre-Messinian intervals. Messinian at Site 652 is essentially turbiditic and basinal in character; it was deposited during the syn-rift phase in a strongly subsiding half-graben and is correlatable with emerged coeval sequences; in part with the Laga Formation of the foredeep of Apennines, and in part with the filling of grabens dissecting that chain in the Tyrrhenian portion of Tuscany. The sequence found in Site 654 indicates an upper Tortonian to Messinian transgression accompanying crustal stretching in the western Tyrrhenian Sea and is perfectly correlatable with the so-called "Sahelian cycle" and with "postorogenic" cycles recognized in peninsular Italy and in Sicily.

The QUASH UE-Project was designed to assess the reliability of normalisation approaches to compensate the influence of natural process affecting the distribution and concentration of contaminants in sediment. The focus of this paper was to test the influence on normalisation procedures of an inorganic matrix using a sample collected in the Venice Lagoon, Italy.

Variable amounts of Saharan dust deposit on the glaciers of the Alps, fonning thin layers or mixing with local pre-existent sediments. To investigate the mineralogical composition and the source of the deposits, samples of Saharan dust, fine-grained tills and cryoconite accumulations were collected on the surface of the glaciers and/or in ice-cores. The fractionation of the samples and the bulk mineralogy allow a sharp differentiation among the different deposits. Only the clay mineralogy, however, points out the fundamental characteristics of the finest fractions of the deposited materials. Typical clay mineral assemblages were recognised in the Alpine glacial deposits, giving evidence of the different provenance of the materials. Reddish-yellow Saharan dust exhibits prevailing amounts of kaolinite and poorly-crystallised illite, with lower quantities of palygorskite and chlorite. Olive-greyish tills, connected to the local morainic deposits, are mainly composed by high percentages of wellcrystallised mica associated with lesser chlorite and serpentine. Blackish cryoconite accumulations are mixture, in variable proportions, of both Saharan dust and local tills. The mineralogical data clearly differentiate distal and proximal sources of mineral particles deposited on Alpine glaciers.

The VST02 cruise carried out in the summer of 2002 focused on sedimentologic and volcanologic research over selected areas of the deep portion of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Chirp lines and seafloor samples were collected from the Calabrian slope surrounding Stromboli Island, in the Marsili deep-sea fan, in the Vavilov Basin and in the Vavilov seamount. Submarine volcanic activity, both explosive and effusive, is occurring in the Stromboli edifice. Explosive submarine volcanism also affects the shallowest areas of the Vavilov seamount. Submarine carbonate lithification has been observed on the sediment-starved flanks of the Vavilov seamount. Acoustic transparent layers make up the recentmost infill of the Gortani Basin, the easternmost portion of the Vavilov Basin. Channels comprised of a variety of architectural elements and depositional lobes are the main elements of the Marsili deep-sea fan where, apparently, sedimentation occurs mainly through debris flow processes.