Geology

Geognostic soundings (and the relative tests carried out on site and in the laboratory) make it possible to analyse the soil in depth in order to know its stratigraphy and assess its geological and geotechnical characteristics.
Since 1993, the Geological Service has been codifying and computerising data from geognostic surveys carried out on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento, both on its own behalf and by external companies, and those of private subjects (in the latter case, the data are not to be considered in the public domain, and therefore cannot be divulged).

The Geotechnical Laboratory issues geotechnical test certificates in the field of soil and rock mechanics. It performs analyses for the services of the Autonomous Province of Trento and for professionals, companies and organisations that request them.

The Water Resources Charter represents a fundamental tool for the proper management of an increasingly precious resource such as water. The constant updating of this tool makes it possible to effectively protect the quality and quantity of groundwater in the provincial area, guaranteeing the safeguarding of sources intended for human consumption. Through increasingly precise and accurate mapping of the territory, the Water Resources Map makes it possible to plan urban development while respecting the environment and public health, protecting an essential natural heritage for present and future generations.

Campaigns for the study of valley floor aquifers and their evolution

The information base of over 10,000 springs in Trentino

Due to its high acidity and the particularly rich chemism in salts and metals of its waters, the Acqua Forte di Vetriolo spring has been the subject of interest since the early 1970s by many scholars. These particular characteristics in fact make it unique from a therapeutic point of view.

The Brenta Dolomites, with their extension of 556.8 km2, represent the most extensive hydrostructure in Trentino. Considering the outcropping geological formations, it can be estimated that about 60% of the territory is affected by deep karst circulation: therefore, the karst aquifers of the Brenta Dolomites would be able to provide a total of 12 m3/s of average annual flow.

The RIASPAT project arose from the need to deepen our knowledge of the chemical and physical characteristics of groundwater bodies, relating them to the lithologies present in their respective catchment areas.

Geosites, or geotopes, are places that bear particularly significant witness to the evolution of the earth's crust or the influence this has had on the development of life and man. They thus include rock outcrops, soils, fluids, minerals and fossils or even particular landscape forms and natural phenomena.
Here you will find an initial selection of the most relevant geosites in Trentino, which will be progressively expanded.

The action of protecting the mineralogical, palaeontological, palaeontological, speleological and karstic heritage is also carried out through the establishment of protected areas (in which the collection of minerals and fossils is forbidden except for scientific purposes) in sites considered to be of particular value.

On the slopes of Monte Zugna, south of Rovereto, along a steep slope of about two hundred metres near the Lavini di Marco, hundreds of footprints of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs of different shapes and sizes are imprinted. The rocky outcrops are about 200 million years old (early Jurassic) and represent what remains, in the fossil state, of a large tidal carbonate plain in many ways similar to what can be observed today on the coasts of the Persian Gulf.

One of the most striking and beautiful forms of karstification, i.e. the ability of water to chemically dissolve limestone with the help of carbon dioxide

The caves known in Trentino-Alto Adige up to the summer of 2000 (meaning both those actually registered in the Land Registry at the time, as well as those for which data on location and/or extent were available) numbered around 1,800, of which 1,650 were included in the Cadastral Register and around 150 were reported in numerous hiking guides or directly identified by people living in the mountainous area.

Descriptive sheets of the main stone materials from Trentino, obtained from rocks of various origins, suitable for building applications through specific processing. Petrographic features, extraction information, physical-mechanical and chemical-petrographic characteristics are illustrated

Drawn up by A. Bosellini, A. Castellarin, G.V. Dal Piaz and M. Nardin, it derives from a critical reinterpretation of the geological cartography made in the mid-1980s. On the basis of the data published up to that time, a lithological and structural map was derived that could serve as a cognitive basis on which to develop subsequent detailed studies.

The frozen heart of our mountains is changing rapidly. Permafrost – the permanently frozen ground that lies beneath the peaks and highest slopes of Trentino – is now under close scrutiny. The first public report, ‘Permafrost in Trentino’, has been published: a 40-page document that compiles data from monitoring carried out in 2025 and analyses historical time series spanning more than twenty years.

The Geological Service of the Autonomous Province of Trento, in collaboration with the Universities of Padua (Prof. Carton A., Dr. Carturan L., Dr. Zanoner T.), Pavia (Prof. Seppi R.) and Pisa (Prof. Baroni C., Prof. Salvatore M.C.) has mapped the extension of glaciers and glacial deposits related to the Little Ice Age over the entire territory of the Province of Trento.

The Geological Service of the Autonomous Province of Trento, together with the Universities of Padua and Pavia, has devised and tested a new method for measuring snowpack height, based on the use of sensors that record both temperature and light intensity. The aim is to monitor energy exchange at the soil-atmosphere interface in soils under permafrost conditions.

The permafrost monitoring data acquired by the Geological Service of the Autonomous Province of Trento in collaboration with the Universities of Padua and Pavia and the E. Mach Foundation. Mach have been the subject of scientific publications in international journals.

The permafrost monitoring data acquired by the Geological Service of the Autonomous Province of Trento in collaboration with the Universities of Padua and Pavia and the E. Mach Foundation. Mach have been the subject of scientific publications in international journals.

One of the key sites for permafrost monitoring in Trentino is located on the rocky ridge leading from the south-east to the summit of Monte Vioz (3645 m) in the Ortles Cevedale Group. Along the ridge, a few hundred metres downstream from the summit, is the Vioz 'Mantova' hut (3535 m), which is the highest altitude alpine infrastructure in the central-eastern sector of the Alps.