Apuan Alps
A mountain range in northwestern Tuscany, Italy, distinguished by extensive marble deposits and steep, rugged relief.
Carrara marble: A white or blue-gray marble quarried around Carrara in Tuscany and used in sculpture and architecture. This celebrated stone comes from the range’s marble-bearing rocks.
Carrara: A Tuscan city in the Apuan Alps, internationally known for nearby marble quarries. The city is the principal center associated with extracting and working local marble.
Apuan Alps metamorphic core: A deeply exhumed zone of metamorphic rocks exposed in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany. Its exposed rocks record the processes that transformed local limestone into marble.
Monte Pisanino: The highest summit of the Apuan Alps, reaching 1,946 metres above sea level. Its height makes it the clearest measure of the range’s alpine scale.
Karst: Terrain shaped by the dissolution of soluble rocks, commonly marked by caves, sinkholes, and underground drainage. Limestone dissolution helps shape the Apuan Alps’ rugged terrain and cave systems.
Marble quarrying: The extraction of marble from natural deposits for use in construction, sculpture, and other products. Quarrying has transformed slopes and sustained a major industry in the range.
Apuan Alps geologic history: The tectonic and metamorphic development of the Apuan Alps within the northern Apennines. This history accounts for the range’s unusual rock structure and relief.
Monte Tambura: A 1,890-metre summit in the Apuan Alps, near the historic Via Vandelli route. Its prominent position illustrates the range’s steep, rocky high country.
Marble: A metamorphic rock formed when limestone or dolostone recrystallizes under heat and pressure. The range’s famous building stone is one variety of this metamorphic rock.
Michelangelo's David: A marble sculpture by Michelangelo, completed around 1504 and housed in Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia. Michelangelo selected marble from the Carrara area for this renowned sculpture.