
Franco TassiUniversity of Florence | UNIFI · Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
Franco Tassi
Bachelor of Applied Science
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620
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
September 2012 - present
Education
September 1984 - July 2004
Publications
Publications (620)
Dear colleague,
We would like to draw your attention to the IAVCEI 2025 (29 June – 4 July 2025, Geneva, Switzerland, https://sa2025.iavceivolcano.org/) session:
Multidisciplinary monitoring and modelling of volcanic lakes as a tool for hazard forecast and mitigation
CONVENERS
Franco Tassi (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, Fl...
Active biomonitoring of mercury (Hg) using non-indigenous moss bags was performed for the first time within and around the former Hg mining area of Abbadia San Salvatore (Mt. Amiata, central Italy). The purpose was to discern the Hg spatial distribution, identify the most polluted areas, and evaluate the impacts of dry and wet deposition on mosses....
Northern Foothills of Victoria Land, Antarctica contains numerous hydrological formations, ranging from small surface streams and ponds fed by glacial or snow meltwater to permafrost lakes containing briny pockets. Here we describe the discovery of a massive body of unfrozen stratified oligotrophic water in Lake Enigma, a permanently ice-covered la...
The Tolhuaca Geothermal System (TGS) represents a potential 13 Mwe geothermal reservoir located on the NW flank of Tolhuaca stratovolcano, in the Southern Volcanic Zone (SVZ) of the Andes. Despite decades of scientific exploration on the chemistry of its high-enthalpy surface geothermal system, the full understanding and connection to the underlyin...
Nisyros Island (Greece) is affected by widespread gas emissions from fumarolic fields located at the bottom of hydrothermal craters in the southern part of its caldera. This morphology and the current low gas fluxes make Nisyros an ideal site for testing the limits of physics-based gas dispersal models in confined and low-emission conditions. Here,...
The Mugello Intermontane Basin (MIB) is located 30 km north of Florence (Tuscany, central Italy) and shows high seismicity with historical events characterized by Mw ≥ 6, e.g., on June 13, 1542 (Mw = 6.0) and June 29, 1919 (Mw = 6.4). Progresses in the identification of seismic tracers in geofluids has been made in the last decades, although refere...
The Pesaro-Urbino province (PUP) (northern Marche, central Italy) is one of the most seismically active areas in Italy, with the most recent earthquakes (5.2 and 5.5 Mw) having occurred on 9 November 2022 with an epicenter located in the Adriatic Sea. A detailed geochemical and isotopic characterization of 87 groundwaters (and dissolved gases) circ...
The pressing issue of atmospheric pollution has prompted the exploration of affordable methods for measuring and monitoring air contaminants as complementary techniques to standard methods, able to produce high-density data in time and space. The main challenge of this low-cost approach regards the in-field accuracy and reliability of the sensors....
The exploration of novel geothermal systems, particularly those promising for electrical power generation, plays
a fundamental role in incorporating new renewable sources into the energy matrix. Geothermal systems associated
with volcanic calderas are considered ideal targets for exploration. This study focuses on the geochemical
features of fluids...
Nisyros Island (Greece) is affected by widespread gas emissions from fumarolic fields located at the bottom of hydrothermal craters in the southern part of its caldera. This morphology and the current low gas fluxes make Nisyros an ideal site for testing the limits of physics-based gas dispersal models in confined and low-emission conditions. Here,...
Active volcanoes often discharge hot (T >>100 °C) magmatic gases whose original composition has been modified through partial interaction with an externally fed hydrothermal system. The study of methane (CH4) in these volcanic discharges may provide useful information on the interplay between deep magmatic gases and shallow circulation of hydrother...
Over the past decade, we have conducted geochemical and isotopic monitoring of the fumarolic gases of the Peteroa volcano (Argentina‐Chile). Using the resulting data set, we constructed a conceptual model that describes the evolution of the magmatic‐hydrothermal system and identifies precursory geochemical signals of the last eruption. Our data set...
Hydrothermal explosions occur through the sudden expansion of fluids at or
near boiling condition with little or no precursors, making any kind of forecast
difficult. Here, we investigate the processes occurring within hydrothermal
systems in a potential critical state for explosions through a new methodology
based on mass balances of thermal water...
Hydrothermal explosions occur through the sudden expansion of fluids at or near boiling condition with little or no precursors, making any kind of forecast difficult. Here, we investigate the processes occurring within hydrothermal systems in a potential critical state for explosions through a new methodology based on mass balances of thermal water...
Earthquakes produce significant changes in the stress field surrounding the causative ruptured fault. Such stress perturbations can be transferred through dynamic and static stresses. Passing seismic waves can trigger earthquakes and perturb volcanic and hydrogeological systems up to remote distances, occasionally driving these features into erupti...
Spring and well waters occurring in the province of Pesaro-Urbino (Marche Region, central-eastern Italy) are characterized by a wide geochemical variability, pertaining to four compositional groups: (i) low salinity Ca-HCO3, (ii) Ca-HCO3-SO4, (iii) alkaline Na-HCO3 and (iv) medium-high TDS Ca-SO4. Moreover, a few samples show a mixed composition in...
A sharp increase in volatiles, especially SO2 fluxes from the solfataric plume and diffuse CO2 from the soils of the La Fossa crater area, started in June 2021, and subsequently from the Levante Bay area, suggests renewed unrest at Vulcano Island, Italy. This event has encouraged monitoring activities and stimulated new research activities aimed at...
Soda lakes exhibit notable levels of carbonate salts, predominantly sodium carbonate along with associated salt complexes, thereby resulting in elevated alkalinity. This extreme condition creates a unique environment for the aquatic microbial community. The extremophilic microorganisms play important roles in the carbon and nutrient cycling of soda...
This paper presents and discusses the water and gas geochemistry of a large number of thermal springs occurring
along the N-S trending Strymon Valley, from its source, near Sofia (Bulgaria), to the Aegean Sea (Greece). In Bulgaria springs have markedly alkaline pH, relatively low Total Dissolved Solids and prevalent Na-HCO3 to Na- Cl(SO4) in compos...
Soda lakes are highly alkaline (pH 9-11) and characterized by high concentrations of dissolved sodium carbonate. These extreme conditions create a unique environment for planktonic microbial communities that are adapted to survive in extreme conditions. These extremophilic microorganisms play important roles in the carbon and nutrient cycling in la...
Monitoring networks, able to effectively provide high-frequency geochemical data for characterizing the geochemical behavior of the main greenhouse gases (i.e., CO2 and CH4) and pollutants (e.g., heavy metals) are crucial tools for the assessment of air quality and its role in climate changes. However, the provision of measurement stations dedicate...
One of the major problems in the volcanic surveillance is how data from several techniques can be correlated and used to discriminate between possible precursors of volcanic eruptions and changes related to non-eruptive processes. Gas chemical surveys and measurements of SO2 emission rates performed in the past (2006–2019) at Lastarria volcano in N...
The Tufiño-Chiles-Cerro Negro (TCCN), located on the border between Colombia and Ecuador, is one of the most promising geothermal systems in the Andean Northern Volcanic Zone, presenting an estimated geothermal potential of 130-138 MWe associated with two reservoirs located at 500-1000 m, and >1500 m of depth, respectively. In this work, we present...
The Mt. Catria-Mt. Nerone (northern Marche, central Italy) carbonate ridge contains a defined and isolated hydrogeological system composed by three main sedimentary aquifers hosted in the Scaglia, Maiolica and Massiccio Formations. These calcareous and marly-calcareous aquifers belong to the Umbria-Marche series and are divided by marly and marly-c...
A laboratory experiment lasting 28 days was run to simulate a typical landfill system and to investigate the compositional changes affecting the main components (CH4, CO2, and H2) and nonmethane volatile organic compounds from biogas generated by anaerobic digestion of food waste and passing through a soil column. Gas samples were periodically coll...
The CO2-(N2)-rich pressurised Caprese Reservoir (Northern Apennines, central Italy) is a structural system controlled by a subsurface fold anticline. Mud volcano-like structures and cold gas seeps lie along steep, ~NE-trending faults, which are intimately connected to the deep fluid reservoir. In August 2010, five vents erupted mud flows after a lo...
Ocean acidification caused by shifts in ocean carbonate chemistry resulting from increased atmospheric CO 2 concentrations is threatening many calcifying organisms, including corals. Here we assessed autotrophy vs heterotrophy shifts in the Mediterranean zooxanthellate scleractinian coral Balanophyllia europaea acclimatized to low pH/high pCO 2 con...
This paper presents new chemical and isotopic data on gases from deep oil and gas fields, bubbling gases, dissolved gases in groundwaters and dry seeps of the Southern Po River Basin (Emilia-Romagna, Italy), aiming to (i) characterize and differentiate the various types of deep natural gases; (ii) identify the source(s) of methane and light hydroca...
Active hydrothermal travertine systems are ideal environments to investigate how abiotic and biotic processes affect mineralization mechanisms and mineral fabric formation. In this study, a biogeochemical characterization of waters, dissolved gases, and microbial mats was performed together with a mineralogical investigation on travertine encrustat...
The chemical composition of gases emitted by active volcanoes reflects both magma degassing and shallower processes, such as fluid-rock hydrothermal interaction and mixing with atmospheric-derived fluids. Untangling the magmatic fluid endmember within surface gas emission is therefore challenging, even with the use of well-known magma degassing tra...
Although terrestrial hydrothermal systems are considered among the most fascinating environments, how their unique and extreme conditions can affect microorganisms selection and the role in biogeochemical cycles has not yet been well elucidated. A combined geochemical and microbiological exploration in waters and sediments from ten sampling points...
This study focuses on the geochemical features of the presently discharging thermal and cold springs and on paleofluids from the upstream portion of the Reno river basin (Alto Reno; central–northern Italy). The aim is investigating the primary sources of the modern and fossil fluids and the interactions between deep and shallow aquifers. Paleofluid...
Wetlands are among the main natural sources of CH 4 emissions to the atmosphere. Neverthe less, large uncertainties still affect the estimates of their overall contribution at both local and global scales due to several knowledge gaps on how environmental drivers shape CH 4 emissions from these delicate ecosystems. In this work, we present CH 4 dif...
The Mugello Basin (MB) is an intermountain Pleistocene basin located 30 km north of Florence (Tuscany, Central Italy), which shows high seismicity with few events being characterized by Mw≥6.0, e.g. the June 29, 1919 Vicchio earthquake (Mw=6.2) that caused almost 100 fatalities and more than 400 injuries. The aim of this study was to characterize t...
Wetlands are well-known as significant sources of CH4 to the atmosphere, whereas lakes are commonly considered as sinks for C-bearing volatiles produced within bottom sediments. In this work, we present the results of two surveys (summer 2020 and winter 2021, respectively) carried out at the 300×200 m wide Lake Astroni (Phlegraean Fields, southern...
The chemical composition of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in landfill gas from municipal waste (MW) landfills primarily depends on the type of degrading waste. To provide first insights into the relationship between VOC chemistry (in landfill gas) and specific waste components, a lab-scale experiment on anaerobic digestion (AD) of green waste (...
Volcanoes are currently to be regarded as natural sources of air pollutants. Climatic and environmental forcing of large volcanic eruptions are well known, although gases emitted through passive degassing during periods of quiescence or hydrothermal activity can also be highly dangerous for the environment and public health. Based on compositional...
The Argentinean Andean region hosts a vast geothermal resource clustered by active magmatic and tectonic activity. One of the most studied geothermal areas is the Tuzgle-Tocomar geothermal system in Central Puna (NW Argentina). However, despite the existence of several studies since the 1970′s highlighting the geothermal potential of the area, only...
Wetlands are hotspots of CH4 emissions to the atmosphere, mainly sustained by microbial decomposition of organic matter in anoxic sediments. Several knowledge gaps exist on how environmental drivers shape CH4 emissions from these ecosystems, posing challenges in upscaling efforts to estimate global emissions from waterbodies. In this work, CH4 and...
Red wood ants are ecologically important species in Europe that form large colonies. Their nest mounds are characterized by stable microclimatic conditions, that are favourable to the development of rich invertebrate and microbial communities. Through their respiration processes, all these inhabitants contribute to the total gas emissions of the mo...
In the framework of the industry of secondary aluminum, the chemical neutralization of highly reactive materials that come from the pre-treatment screening processes of scraps (beverage cans and domestic appliances) was investigated through experiments in aqueous alkaline solutions. Metallic aluminum-rich by-products are classified, according to EU...
Biogas flux, VOCs, landfill cover soil, Municipal solid waste
Sicily hosts many natural manifestations that include thermal waters, gas discharges and mud volcanoes. Due to the significant geodynamic and geological differences, the fluid discharges along a NE-WS–oriented transect that run from the Peloritani Mts. to the Sciacca Plain shows a large variability in water and gas chemical and isotopic composition...
From February to April 2019, near-surface CO2 and CH4 concentrations and carbon isotopic compositions (δ¹³C-CO2 and δ¹³C-CH4) were monitored at four stations belonging to the local air quality surveillance network of Florence (central Italy), representing typical zones of suburban background (SB), urban traffic (UT) and urban background (UB). The G...
The contribution of oxic methane production to greenhouse gas emissions from lakes is globally relevant, yet uncertainties remain about the levels up to which methanogenesis can counterbalance methanotrophy by leading to CH4 oversaturation in productive surface waters. Here, we explored the biogeochemical and microbial community variation patterns...
The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by global mobility restrictions and slowdown in manufacturing activities. Accordingly, cities experienced a significant decrease of CO2 emissions. In this study, continuous measurements of CO2 fluxes, atmospheric CO2 concentrations and δ13C-CO2 values were performed in the historical center of Flore...
Diffuse soil fluxes of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) were measured in a hydrothermal area (20,000 m2) located inside “Le Biancane” natural park, north of Monterotondo Marittimo village (Larderello-Travale geothermal field, Central Italy), using a static closed chamber (SCC) coupled with a Lumex® RA-915M portable analyzer. At 89 sites, GEM and CO2...