Popularizing Structural Geology: Exemplary Structural Geosites from the Apuan Alps UNESCO Global Geopark (Northern Apennines, Italy)

Popularizing endogenic geological processes that act deep on the Earth during geologictime producing orogenic belts requires a great effort. Consequently, geosites dealing with structural geology are surveyed with a lower frequency. Geological structures, however, may stronglycontrol and model the territory and/or trigger the exogenous processes responsible for a specificlandform/landscape. We describe here three geosites in the Apuan Alps UNESCO Global Geopark(Tuscany, Italy) to highlight their geoheritage values. We used the classical methods applied instructural geology to conceive and design three new interpretative panels of structural geosites usingsimple language and graphic schemes that facilitate the understanding of geological structures. Thethree selected structures were produced by different deformation regimes and at different structuraldepths. The first geosite is the boundary between the metamorphic and non-metamorphic rocks andrepresents the boundary of the Apuan Alps tectonic window. The second geosite is the spectacular Mt.Forato natural arch and the third represents a beautiful example of folds. Each panel is characterizedby QR codes that allow the reader to access a short geological glossary, the Apuan Alps Geoparkwebsite, and a short evaluation survey on the quality of the interpretative panel.