Evolution of geological interpretations in the Alpi Apuane metamorphic complex, and their relevance for the geology of the Northern Apennines

The Alpi Apuane area is the largest tectonic window in the Northern Apennines, where deformation and nappe superposition resulting from Tertiary collisional tectonics may be studied in detail. Because of the good exposures the area assumed in the past a key role in unravelling the tectonic structure of the entire Northern Apennines, many different hypotheses proposed during the years to explain the geolgy of the Northern Apennines are strongly based on fi eld observations from this area. In this review paper, we fi rst present an overview of the geology of the Alpi Apuane metamorphic complex, i.e. of the metamorphic units that outcrops in the central part of the Alpi Apuane tectonic window, and then we illustrate the evolution of the geological interpretations of the area and their relevance in understanding the geology of the Northern Apennines.

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