Softbook : Italian Plio-Quaternary Magmatism By Angelo P. ~ F3

INTRODUCTION

Italian Plio-Quaternary magmatism exhibits a very wide petrological, geochemical and radiogenic-isotope variability, which makes magma genesis and geodynamic significance difficult issues. A large number of papers have been published on these rocks trying to explain the petrogenesis and evolution of single volcanoes or magmatic provinces. However, papers presenting a comprehensive review of the data and hypotheses on the magmatism of the region as a whole are few, if any. Synthesis of data at the local scale has definitely increased our degree of understanding of volcanism at that scale, but it has not resolved ambiguous issues such as the relationship among various magmatic provinces, the significance of regional compositional variations, and the geodynamic setting for this complex magmatism. The objective of this book is to fill this gap by providing an overview of the most prominent petrological and geochemical data and discussing currently held ideas on the petrogenesis and geodynamic significance of Italian Plio-Quaternary volcanic rocks. In summarising the intense debate on Italian magmatism, I have tried to report on, as objectively as possible, all the most significant ideas. The different weight given to the discussion of various points of view depends only marginally on the author’s choice but is mostly an effect of the very different amounts of factual constraints which have been brought to supporting various hypotheses.