Anatomy of an Orogen: The Apennines and Adjacent Mediterranean Basins

This text reviews and updates the geology of the whole Apennines. These mountains are the place from which Steno (1669) first stated the principles of geology. The Apennines also represent amongst others, the finding/testing sites of processes and products like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, olistostromes and melanges (argille scagliose), salinity crisis, geothermal fluids, thrust-top basins, and turbidites (first represented in a famous Leonardo's painting). As such, the Apennines are a testing and learning ground readily accessible and rich of any type of field data. A growing literature is available most of which is not published in widely available journals. The objective of the book is to provide a synthesis of data and ideas on the Apennines, for the most part simply written and suitable for an international audience. However, details and in-depth analyses of the various complex settings have also been presented, and should make this material useful to professional scholars and to students of senior university courses.