Volume 27, Issue No. 1, 2002

THE RIO MAGNO UNIT (ALPINE CORSICA): REVIEW OF ITS STRUCTURAL, STRATIGRAPHICAL  AND GEOCHEMICA FEATURES AND THEIR GEODYNAMIC IMPLICATIONS 

Elisa Padoa*, Emilio Saccani** and Michel Durand-Delga***

* Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universitˆ di Firenze. Via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy

** Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra Universitˆ di Ferrara. Corso Ercole I dâEste 32, 44100 Ferrara, Italy

*** La PŽlisserie, F 81150 Florentin, France

Corresponding Author: Elisa Padoa, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universitˆ di Firenze. Via G. La Pira, 4 - 50121 Firenze, Italy (padoae@steno.geo.unifi.it)

Keywords: ophiolites, Piedmont-Ligurian ocean, Internal Ligurides, Cretaceous. Alpine Corsica, Northern Apennines.

ABSTRACT

The Rio Magno Unit (eastern Corsica) represents an Apenninic-type ophiolitic unit, quite similar to the Internal Ligurides; its ophiolitic sequence includes N-MORB basalts, Lower Cretaceous Palombini-bearing limestones, and mid Cretaceous flysch, and it is not affected by HP-LT alpine metamorphism. These features further support the hypothesis of close geodynamic relationships between the Corsican and Northern Apenninic ophiolites. We suggest that, in the Jurassic Piedmont-Ligurian oceanic basin, the Rio Magno and Internal Ligurides ophiolitic sequences represent a continuous, internal, oceanic paleo-domain. Subsequently, during the Late Cretaceous-Late Eocene, they underwent a similar orogenic evolution, escaping deep involvement during the subduction beneath the European continental margin.