Inner Northern Apennines

Abstract

The Northern Apennines are a fold—thrust belt formed during the Tertiary by the tectonic superposition from W to E of the Ligurides on the Tuscan nappe and on the Tuscan metamorphic complex (Boccaletti et al., 1971; Alvarez et al., 1974; Kligfield, 1979). The ophiolite-bearing Ligurides derived from the southern extension of the Ligurian—Piedmont ocean, from which similar mafic components of the Western Alps also derive (Fig. 14.1). The Tuscan units derived from the continental palaeomargin of the Adria microplate and contain a Hercynian continental basement with its upper Carboniferous Tertiary cover (Vai, this vol., Ch. 10).