The idea to project a Directory of museums of Earth Science, with online public access, arises from the need to create an instrument to show the Italian heritage on this item, and to make it available to different users, from  specialised to didactic and generic profile.
In the Directory, museums which conserve litological, mineralogical and paleontological samples and collections, and deal with themes related to Earth Science have been considered. Earth science is defined as a group of disciplines which studies the internal structure, geo-morphology and evolution of the Earth. In this Directory, also those museums which conserve geological and paleontological collections, despite their nomination (that does not clearly indicates the geological  heritage), have been included. Both traditional (indoor museum, ex situ) and outdoor museums, in situ (including with this term museums of the territory, eco-museums and widespread museums) have been identified.
Meanwhile, among "in situ" museums, paleontological areas have been considered. Indeed, they preserve a rich association of specimens and/or fossil traces, relevant for the evolution of life in the Earth, the reconstruction of past environments and the chronological attribution of the geological strata.
Caves are indeed to be considered Museums “in situ”: these hypogean structures - a casual net of holes in the bowels of the Earth - represent a treasure chest of geological, hydro-geological, paleontological and anthropological data.

In Italy more than 30.000 natural caves have been quantified up to now. But this Repertory takes in account only the caves with tourist purposes (“tourist caves”), because of their accessibility for the general public.
The Directory is also going to include quarries and mines museums. The different types of museums  have been differentiated with suitable symbols., Outdoor museums are those, which deal with in situ recovery of the territory and of the infrastructures (open-pit or underground), where extraction, work and transport took place. Indoor museums are those, which exhibit an ex situ collection of lito-mineralogical, instruments, reproduction of working places or photos related to a specific quarry or mine.

Other types of museums will be soon incorporated (under construction).

 

 

	Indoor museum (ex situ)
	Outdoor museum (in situ)
	Quarry
	Mine
	Paleontological area
	Tourist cave