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Just a few miles off the Cavallino Treporti shoreline, lies an extraordinary ecosystem distinguished by its muddy or sandy bed, quite unlike anything else in the Alto Adriatico. This is le Tegnùe, natural rocky outcrops, occurring haphazardly off the Veneto coast.
The name comes from the Venetian word Tegnùe, or kept back, as fishermen venturing out around here would either ‘mysteriously’ lose their nets or haul them up from the depths to find them badly damaged. Because of this, they avoided these parts whenever possible, allowing the ecosystem‘s gradual and undisturbed development over the centuries.
It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the true ‘nature’ of this unusual phenomenon was discovered and from then on, le Tegnùe became the subject of numerous scientific studies and research.
Today, we know that there are three rock types:
- clastic sedimentary or ‘beach rocks’, formed following ‘cementation’ of the carbonates present in the sand or marine organisms;
- organogenic rocks: produced from the deposition and subsequent stratification of vegetable and animal organisms;
- sedimentary rocks of chemical origin: formed from the reaction between the methane emerging from the sea bed and sea water, causing precipitation of the carbonates present in the water which then leads to cementation.
For more information: tegnue@cavallino.info
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