Excursion in the Variscan Basement of Northern Sardinia (Italy): Field Guide

The Variscan basement in Sardinia is an almost complete section across the South Variscan belt showing the transition from the low- up to the medium-high-grade basement (Figure 1). The basement shows beautiful expositions of folded, sheared and metamorphosed Paleozoic rocks poorly affected by Alpine tectonics. From south to north the effect of the Variscan collision and the subsequent exhumation can be observed at all scales.
The aim of the field trip is to show the effects of progressive deformation and metamorphism along three transects in the Variscan belt in Northern Sardinia. The proposed transects offer very good exposures of Palaeozoic rocks along the western coast of the Nurra peninsula, in the Regional Park of the Asinara Island, in the Anglona and South-Western Gallura regions and in the Baronie area.