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This contribution describes a geodatabase structure designed to manage a large amount of geo-environmental data for the "Gronda di Genova" highway by-pass tunnels in Liguria region (Italy). In particular, an innovative dataset structure founded on an explicit conceptual model was designed to represent the distribution of petrofacies containing Natural Occurring Asbestos (NOA), and their minero-chemical composition. This in order to assess the environmental risk (air dispersion of fibers) due to the tunnel excavation in the asbestos-bearing rocks. Problems related to the GIS (shp) - AutoCAD (layer) conversion have been also considered for delivering the graphic layout of the project and are here discussed.

Realization of large geo-engineering projects in rocks containing naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) must address several crucial geo-environmental issues, including the design of the construction site, the enforcement of health protection measures and the environmentally responsible spoil management. This leads to a compelling need to develop effective and standard procedures to evaluate the distribution and concentration of NOA in rock volumes. NOA petrofacies are here proposed as an innovative tool to evaluate the asbestos distribution and concentration in complex geological settings. NOA petrofacies are fundamental asbestos-bearing rock types, consisting in recurrent lithological and structural features controlling asbestos occurrence. Here we describe and discuss how the NOA petrofacies approach was utilized in a geo-environmental study for the evaluation of asbestos content in a complex meta-ophiolite suite, which will be crossed by the “Gronda di Genova” highway by-pass project (Genoa, NW Italy). NOA petrofacies were used to predict the distribution and relative abundance of NOA in geologically homogeneous zones characterized by the occurrence of specific NOA minerals.

In the SW Alps, at the NE margin of the Argentera Massif, the occurrence of isolated bodies of silicate-bearing marbles (Valdieri Marble), laterally passing to non-metamorphic Mesozoic limestones of the Dauphinois succession, appears enigmatic, since their origin cannot be related to the regional metamorphism. The stratigraphic, geometric, petrographic, and geochemical features of the Valdieri Marble indicate that it originated from the upflow of hydrothermal fluids which deeply recrystallised the limestone and provoked the abundant neoblastesis of silicate minerals, at an estimated crystallisation temperature of ca. 350 °C. This paper provides for the first time an absolute U/Pb age, comprised between 30 and 31.6 Ma (early Oligocene), for the Valdieri Marble, which is affected by a syn-genetic shear foliation in turn crosscut by the main Alpine tectonic foliations. The hydrothermal fluids that formed the Valdieri Marble migrated along low-angle shear zones, mostly parallel to the sedimentary primary bedding, which were downward connected with high-angle master faults of the “Alpine SW transfer”, a main Oligocene–early Miocene transcurrent shear zone at the southern termination of the Western Alps. The localized heat flow sustaining the hydrothermal system could be related to the early Oligocene thermal event, well documented by magmatic activity in the Western and Central Alps.