Post-Variscan Verrucano-like deposits in Italy, and the onset of the alpine tectono-sedimentary cycle

After the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian transtensional tectonics represented by many strike-slip continental basins (cycle I), widespread Middle Permian geodynamic reorganization ('Mid-Permian Episode' Auctt.) led to the development of a dominant extensional regime, and the birth of tectonic plates and oceans (Neotethys, Meliata-Maliak, etc.) between Africa and Europe. The erosion of the Variscan relief was followed by ingression from S-E sectors of shallow-marine branches of Neotethys (cycle II). The major rifting events that led to the Jurassic birth of the Ligurian-Piedmont Ocean started during the Middle-Late Triassic, and were related to the eastern opening of the Atlantic Ocean. These rifting events gave rise to the development of the Adria and Europe-Corsica-Sardinia conjugate passive margins, characterized by an asymmetric structural and sedimentary evolution. In this geological context, the Verrucano-like deposits of Italy can be interpreted as a discontinuous and asynchronous 'tectofacies' that marks the final dismantling of the SE border of the Variscan chain.