Revisiting the Internal Ligurian Units of the Antessio area (Ligurian Aapennines, Italy): insights into the oceanic lithosphere of the Ligurian-Piedmont basin.

This paper presents a complete stratigraphic, tectonic, and structural dataset of the Internal Ligurian Units outcropping in the Antessio area (Northern Apennines), based on new geological mapping and micro- and mesoscale analyses. A stack of three Internal Ligurian Units, namely, from top to the bottom, the Gottero, Bracco-Val Graveglia and Colli-Tavarone Units, has been recognized. The general stratigraphic characteristics of these units indicate that they are derived from dismembering of a sequence derived from the Ligurian-Piedmont oceanic basin. This sequence includes Middle to Late Jurassic ophiolites, Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous pelagic deposits, Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary turbidites and Early Tertiary mass-transport deposits. This sequence is interpreted to have developed during the progressive trench-ward motion of a segment pertaining to the inner part of the Ligurian-Piedmont oceanic basin. In the Antessio area, the deformation history of the Internal Ligurian Units includes two deformation phases, whose features support the involvement of these units in a subductionrelated accretionary wedge zone by coherent underplating followed by exhumation. This picture suggests a close correlation between the Internal Ligurian Units of the Antessio area and those of the Bracco Massif, as well as those of the Graveglia and Vara valleys.