THE GEOLOGY OF THE ELBA ISLAND: AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

Abstract

The studies on the geology of the Elba Island began toward the middle of the 19th century. The first detailed survey was performed by Lotti for the first edition of the Geological Map of Italy. All the formations were considered autochthonous and pertaining to a single stratigraphic succession. Termier in 1910 introduced the nappe concept in the geology of the Island. At the end of the second world war, the geology of the Island was renewed by the studies of the researchers of the Pisa University. The geological scheme of Trevisan (1950,1951), modified in the sixties as the result of the new geological survey for the second edition of the Geological Map of Italy, constituted a basic synthesis of the sedimentary and tectonic evolution of the Island, which was considered a stack of five tectonic complexes. Only partial modifications have been carried out to this model till the end of the nineties, when a detailed geological survey of the central and eastern Elba was performed by the authors and colleagues of the Florence University. Their stratigraphic and structural interpretation is based on the presence of nine main tectonic units which belong to the Piedmontese, Ligurian and Tuscan domains. Their present very complex tectonic piling up is due to both syn-orogenic thrusting, and low angle extensional detachments partly triggered by the Neogene plutons uplift.