THE UPPER VALDARNO CONTINENTAL BASIN (CENTRAL ITALY): A RESOURCEFUL “GYMNASIUM” FOR STRATIGRAPHICAL AND APPLIED GEOLOGICAL STUDIES

The present contribution follows a field trip at the Upper Valdarno basin (UV; Tuscany) in the frame of the Master course in Stratigraphic Geology (Scienze e Tecnologie Geologiche - Florence University). The UV is one of the largest and famous Plio-Pleistocene intermontane continental basins of the Northern Apennines, documented by more twenty years of stratigraphical researches on sedimentology, palaeomagnetism, palynology and mammal fauna (e.g. Napoleone et al., 2003; Bertini, 2013; Fidolini et al., 2013 and references therein). Its infill, recently organized in four synthems (named as Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni, Montevarchi, Fosso Salceto and Torrente Ciuffenna), is made of sediments accumulated in a wide range of depositional environments spanning from alluvial, aeolian to lacustrine, since the Late Pliocene. During the field trip we had the possibility to observe the main outcrops of the UV, and to discuss different stratigraphical key issues for the study of continental deposits (e.g. the use of litho - vs unconformity bounded stratigraphic units and the facies analysis as well as the application of the biochronologic principles