The basement complexes in Italy, with special regards to those exposed in the Alps： a review

Most of the sedimentary rocks occurring in Italy are post-Carboniferous. All what lies below is considered basement, mostly metamorphic or igneous. Understand-ing the pre-Carboniferous evolution depends on the reconstruction of the sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous evolution of the basement. In general, the base-ment sedimentary protoliths were Lower to Middle Pale-ozoic siliciclastic rocks, while the igneous protolithsbelong to an Ordovician cycle. The prevailing metamor-phism,from very-low grade to granulite facies, is Variscan. It was followed by the formation of large amounts of granitic melts.