Some aeolian features in the Po plain near Este (North Italy)

Abstract

In the cultivated Venetian plain, aerial photographs show evidence of scattered distributions of whitish speckles, interpreted as residues of small sand bodies alternating with fine alluvial sediments. Similar patterns occur SW of the Euganean Hills, where ancient fluvial sandy ridges, the remains of Holocene and Pleistocene abandoned courses of the Adige river, are also evident. In this paper, one special group of presumed aeolian forms is described in the neighbourhood of Este (province of Padova). Studies of aerial photographs (which give evidence of small scattered residues of dune fields) are first presented; then a single preserved relief, interpreted as a dune, and an elongated depression, tentatively interpreted as a deflation hole, are briefly described; lastly, the results of sedimentological analyses on both dune sands and fluvial sediments are presented. In the conclusive discussion, the authors observe that all these elements give good support to the interpretation of the relief as a true Aeolian accumulation form and indicate the presence of other deposits of fluvio-aeolian origin.