Geology of the area of the Piuro 1618 event (Val Bregaglia, Italian Central Alps): the setting of a catastrophic historical landslide

Abstract

The Piuro 1618 landslide is renowned as one of the most catastrophic historical events of the Central Alps. The landscape of the Bregaglia Valley has been successively modified to such an extent to make it difficult to ascertain the source of the landslide, the extent of its deposits and the setting of the ancient village. This study focuses on the identification of the source area of the landslide, its dynamics, the extent of its deposits and the estimation of the involved volumes. The geological map here proposed permitted to reconstruct the relationships between the pre-1618 setting, the 1618 restructuration of the landscape and the post-event changes that occurred owing to erosion by the trunk river, deposition of debris flow fans and slope dynamics. The paper shows how geological mapping may help to unravel landscape evolution of an Alpine valley even at the high-resolution required by historical and archaeological studies.