who knows the Friuli-Venezia Giulia knows that Italy is the gateway to many points of view. In past centuries has been the main entrance to the barbarian invasions ( by the Huns of Attila the Lombards ), but already even before the advent of human trafficking a preferred corridor for the migration of many species of animals from the Balkans. Finally, it has always been the entry point of the air currents from the East (the bora is a classic example of this last step). Each crossing leaves its mark: the people leave part of their cultural background and animals leave a genetic trace recognizable by experts, but the currents? We are not accustomed to think of the legacies of the wind, which we identify as a transient by definition. But sometimes the currents can carry a heavy luggage, anything but temporary.
is the case of the notorious toxic cloud that sprang from Chernobyl April 26, 1986 and invested, in addition to Ukraine, all of Europe. In Italy, the cloud came from the East, just from Friuli-Venezia Giulia . Universities and research institutions immediately began an in-depth monitoring of radiation that was discharged on the ground, through the direct study of the soil and some bodies. Among these fungi and lichens were privileged because they are bodies are very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions (1).
After three years of explosion, researchers at the University of Trieste and the S. Maria della Misericordia Udine measured in detail the distribution of radioactive cesium contamination in Friuli-Venezia Giulia from analysis of fungi (2). The study was carried out to understand what were the areas most affected by radiation, then the greatest need of health and environmental concerns. The study data were released after being correlated with data on the abundance of rainfall in the days following the explosion. It was discovered a strong relationship between the two measurements: in practice, it became clear that in areas where it had rained more in the ten days following the explosion was detected a higher concentration of radiation on the ground, absorbed by their own mushrooms.
The map obtained by monitoring, shown here on the side, shows quite clearly that the expected relationship existed: the peaks of rainfall (in red) meat and fell in Tarvisio, so even the highest concentrations of radiation ( always in red). It was now sadly clear that the rains of those days had led to the ground of the radiation of the cloud, making them penetrate the soil from which the bodies had absorbed. Yet it seems that in this story there is the other. Although the authors of the study there is soffermino, we observe a peak in the map orange pretty evident, located outside the areas the most rainfall. If it is not related to the abundance of rain in the region, then the orange peak is not directly linked to radiation from the cloud rained. This means that there is some factor that does not contaminate the area by air. What could be the source of radiation that contaminates the area orange? Please note that in Italy not reported quarries uranium or cesium . Then we try to formulate some other hypothesis plausible.
The first hypothesis is that radiation is indirectly caused by the cloud. Friuli is the scene of a natural phenomenon well known to those who know a bit 'Geology of Italy, the springs . It lifts water rained down on the plains to the mountains and penetrated into the subsoil. The radioactive contamination of water in the mountains may have led then to a deep-water contamination that would then re-emerged on the plain. If so, however, we should see the distribution of radiation at the so-called end of the springs, the slope of the water line, which runs parallel to the coastline. However, superimposing the two maps of the areas do not match (see figure above). This is simply because the water that rain in the mountains need some time before re-emerging in the valley and this time, even if geologically brief, is quite long for our experience. We say that the radioactive poison rain in the mountains to the valley only emerges from a long time. 
Excluding the geological factor, it may be interesting to investigate the presence of human beings in the area. Giving voice to the "blank paper" look at the last map that I propose, that the orange peak rises around a well-known town in the province of Pordenone Aviano. Continued ...
Bibliogafia
(1) Nimis PL, 1996 - Radiocesium in plants of forest ecosystems. Study Geobotany, 15: 3-49. See also the extensive bibliography cited in this article.
(2) PL Nimis, Gasparo D., C. Young, R. Padovani, 1990 - Radiocontamination maps of Macrofungi in North-Eastern Italy (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) Following the Chernobyl accident. Gortana - Proceedings of the Friuli Museum of Natural History, 11 (1989): 119-126.
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