Overview
We are in Dunarobba, in the municipality of Avigliano Umbra and north-west of Terni, and it is here that the remains of a fossil forest can be found, which stood on the shore of Lake Tiberino, at the edge of a river about 120 kilometres long and up to 30 kilometres wide that crossed the Terni basin and frequently flooded this now flat area.
A large amount of debris generated by the floods has settled on the ground, over time, until it reached the level of the roots and barks of some colossal evergreen conifers, very similar to today's redwoods, which covered this territory during the Pliocene, between 3 and 2 million years ago.
Submerged by the alluvial, sandy and clayey material, the gigantic trunks of those ancient trees (with a diameter that can reach one and a half metres) have been preserved thanks to a special chemical process of fossilisation.
Today, Lake Tiberino no longer exists, but the geological finds of the fossil forest of Dunarobba, which remained underground for a very long time, have been found and welcome travellers along a surprising visit route, also for children, which starts from the Centre for Plant Palaeontology, east of the town.
