New CARG Glossary

The experience gained in the first phase of production of the Geological Map of Italy, 1: 50,000 scale - CARG Project, and the refinancing of the project, has highlighted the need to develop a new, updated, and expanded Glossary. The realization of this vocabulary was necessary to guarantee a common and univocal language for all the CARG Project products (Geological Sheet, Explanatory Notes, Database), even though it is not an exhaustive glossary covering the whole fields of Geology. The new Glossary is deeply focused on the Geological DataBase of the CARG Project (GDB), which is in turn based on the terms used during field-mapping and map-related semantics. It was realized starting from, and implementing/updating the previous versions contained in the guidelines of the CARG Project (Pasquarè et alii, 1992; Battaglini et alii, 2009; Galluzzo et alii, 2009)*. The revision of previous concepts has been performed by referring to the most recent and/or consolidated bibliography, as testified by the widespread use of bibliographic references in the descriptions. This version of the Glossary replaces the previous ones.

The Glossary contains all the terms occurring in the Geological DataBase and general terms, functional to the descriptions of more specific items. Related concepts and synonyms are mutually joined through hypertextual links, creating a semantic and technically interoperable set of geological vocabs. The terms are described providing as broad a description as possible, sometimes with the various meanings used in the several fields of geosciences. In some cases, part of the description is focused on the specific meaning that the term has in the Geological DataBase. For the terms occurring in the Geological DataBase, the description is accompanied by the indication of the names and codes of the fields and tables of the Geological DataBase.

Several terms are linked to INSPIRE terminology, following the legal requirements of the EU directive 2007/2/EC (INSPIRE), or to the semantically-controlled vocabulary of IUGS (i.e., GeoSciML), for terms not present in INSPIRE. This choice has the purpose of: i) making reference to the European vocabulary, ii) comparing the latter with our terminology, which often differ, and iii) claiming the complexity of the geological context that requires a plethora of specific terms adopted in this Glossary.

The Glossary is available online and periodically updated. It was designed as a useful and versatile tool for a wider audience (i.e., geoscientists, students, teachers, etc.), but especially for those working within the CARG Project. In fact, the Glossary must be the reference for the vocabulary of Legend and size-elements of the Geological Sheet, and related Explanatory Notes, as well as for the Geological DataBase.

GLOSSARY

_{*Pasquarè G., Abate e., Bosi C., Castiglioni G. B., Merenda L., Mutti E., Orombelli G., Ortolani F., Parotto M., Pignone R., Premoli Silva I. & Sassi F.P. (1992) - Carta Geologica d’Italia - 1:50.000 - Guida al rilevamento. Quaderni del Servizio Geologico Nazionale, serie III, 1, pp. 203.}

_{Battaglini L., Carta R., D’Angelo S., Delogu D., Falcetti s., Pantaloni M., Papasodaro F. & Tacchia D. (2009) - Carta Geologica d’Italia - 1:50.000 - Progetto CARG: modifiche ed integrazioni ai Quaderni n. 2/1996 e n. 6/1997. Quaderni del Servizio Geologico d'Italia, serie III, 12 (I), 166 pp.}

_{Galluzzo F., Cacciuni A., Chiarini E., D’Orefice M., Falcetti S., Graciotti R., La Posta E., Papasodaro F., Ricci V. & Vita L. (2009) - Carta Geologica d’Italia - 1:50.000 - Progetto CARG: modifiche ed integrazioni al Quaderno n.1/1992. Quaderni, serie III, 12 (III), 54 pp.}