The internal northern apennines, the northern Tyrrhenian Sea and the Sardinia-Corsica block

In this paper we review the evolution of the internal area of the Northern Apennines, northern Tyrrhenian Sea and the Sardinia-Corsica block, focusing on the post-collisional evolution. The discussion follows the Author's point of view, but for the reader interested in a deeper knowledge of the geology of the area many in text citations are added and a comprehensive reference list is presented. We first shortly introduce the stratigraphy of the area, in the framework of the geodynamic evolution of the western margin of the Apulia microplate, the adjacent Ligurian ocean and the European Sardinia-Corsica microplate. After a general overview of the nappe structure resulting from collisional tectonics is presented for the whole area. The post-collisional evolution is discussed in more details, and we separately present data relative to the Sardinia-Corsica block, the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, northern Tuscany and southern Tuscany. We distinguish: a) a Late Oligocene-Early Miocene collisional stage, with continuing collision of the European continent with the Apulia microplate; b) an Early-Middle Miocene stage linked to the opening of the Algero-Provencal basin; c) a Late Tortonian-Quaternary stage linked to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea.