Sphalerite and Wurtzite from the Carrara marble Tuscany, Italy

摘要

Carrara marble, famous as the preferred choice of some of the most important sculptors of the Renaissance (including Michelangelo), is still being mined from quarries in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany, central Italy. These mountain ranges extend in a northwest-southeast direction, covering an area of about 400 square kilometers between the provinces of Massa-Carrara and Lucca. The slopes rise steeply in alpine fashion to the 1,946-meter peak of Mount Pisanino. The spectacular topography of this mountain range is very different from that typical of the Apennine chain which constitutes the "spine" of the Italian peninsula, and reflects the very complex geological history of a crustal sector known in the literature as the Tuscan Domain.