Antarctica represents a unique and still partially untouched natural laboratory. The Antarctic continent, covered almost completely by ice and snow and surrounded by oceans, is perfect for studying the interactions between lithosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, and for monitoring the causes and effects of past and present climate changes. 
DISTAV researchers have been involved in these researches for many years through studies of tectonics and geodynamics, marine geology, oceanography, solid earth and applied geophysics; their research is multidisciplinary and integrated with other disciplines such as chemistry, physics and biology. 
The studies are aimed at understanding and defining changes in the Earth System including the geodynamic evolution of the Gondwana margin and the opening of the Southern Ocean gateways and their impact on the evolution of the ice sheets; studying climate change and monitoring the impact of external and internal factors to the Antarctic continent (including anthropogenic ones).
DISTAV researchers are/were involved in National and International projects and Coordinators of PNRA-Italian projects (for geological mapping, tectonics and marine geology: Paola Cianfarra, Laura Crispini , Laura Federico, Michele Locatelli, Danilo Morelli; for geophysical topics: Egidio Armadillo, Fabio Caratori Tontini). 

https://life.unige.it/geologi-unige-antartide
https://life.unige.it/swais2c