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Engineering Geology for Society and Territory - Volume 8 pp 59–63Cite as

Earth Pyramids: Precarious Structures Surviving Recurrent Perturbations

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Abstract

Earth pyramids are tall tapered spires, slender or stocky, made of rock or soil material. This type of features have been marginally studied. Even if they are often included in parks and geosites. We start from this lack of studies to analyse the geometrical and physical-mechanical characteristics considering some case studies in northern Italy. Because of their geometrical characteristics these elements are intrinsically weak and can be used as indicators of past external perturbations. We performed laboratory characterization and numerical modelling to analyse the involved actions, the stability and the reaction to dynamic perturbations.

Keywords

  • Earth pyramids
  • Hoodos
  • Characterization
  • Stability
  • Modeling
  • Vibrations

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Envinromental Science, Università di Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 4, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Giovanni B. Crosta, Riccardo Castellanza, Alberto Villa & Gabriele Frigerio

  2. Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes, National Research Council of Italy (IPDA-CNR), Via Mario Bianco, 9, 20131, Milan, Italy

    Roberto de Franco & Grazia Caielli

Authors
  1. Giovanni B. Crosta
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  2. Riccardo Castellanza
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  3. Roberto de Franco
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  4. Alberto Villa
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  5. Gabriele Frigerio
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  6. Grazia Caielli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giovanni B. Crosta .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. for Geo-hydrological Protection, National Research Council (CNR), Turin, Italy

    Giorgio Lollino

  2. Inst. for Geo-hydrological Protection, National Research Council (CNR), Turin, Italy

    Daniele Giordan

  3. Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Cristian Marunteanu

  4. Department of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Basiles Christaras

  5. Geo Research Institute, Osaka, Japan

    Iwasaki Yoshinori

  6. ISPRA-Inst. f. Env. Protection&Research, Geological Survey of Italy, Rome, Italy

    Claudio Margottini

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Crosta, G.B., Castellanza, R., de Franco, R., Villa, A., Frigerio, G., Caielli, G. (2015). Earth Pyramids: Precarious Structures Surviving Recurrent Perturbations. In: Lollino, G., Giordan, D., Marunteanu, C., Christaras, B., Yoshinori, I., Margottini, C. (eds) Engineering Geology for Society and Territory - Volume 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09408-3_7

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