Crestola Bassa Quarry, Torano quarrying basin, Carrara, Massa-Carrara Province, Tuscany, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Crestola Bassa Quarry	Quarry
Torano quarrying basin	Basin
Carrara	Commune
Massa-Carrara Province	Province
Tuscany	Region
Italy	Country

Crestola Bassa Quarry, Torano quarrying basin, Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy

This quarrying area is located at the southern foot of Monte Crestola (also known as Poggio di Crestola), at the mouth of Torano valley; it has been one of the first areas where marble was extracted at Roman times. The quarrying area includes, from the west to the east, the old abandoned Crestola Bassa quarry (also known as Ricci quarry), the active quarry La Madonna (also officially indicated as Quarry No. 64, but presently known among mineral collector as Crestola Bassa quarry), and other two small quarries, named La Madonnina and Mandria respectively, formally inactive. The name Pianello quarry/quarries (Cava/cave del Pianello) was used in the past to indicate the eastern quarrying area (approximately the present-day La Madonna-La Madonnina-Mandria area) and distinguish it from the western one (Crestola Bassa proper). In the Pianello quarrying area, where some quarries were operated at the end of the 18th and in the first half of the 19th century, the quarry name Crestola-Cavetta or simply Cavetta was used by Repetti (1820 and 1833) and other authors.


The best findings were performed on the right side of the quarrying area (La Madonna quarry), where marbles have reddish colour with widespread vugs. However, the first finding of rutile described by Del Tredici (1978) was made at the old Crestola Bassa (Ricci) quarry, as a consequence of a rock-fall from an old quarry face.

In the higher levels of the quarrying area (La Madonna quarry), exceptional crystals of gypsum up to 10 cm in length were found in fissures in a lens of white marble. Crystals up to 6 cm in length were recently collected within a vug, discovered in the left side of the quarrying area.

Crestola Bassa (i.e. La Madonna quarry) is well known among mineral collectors for the occurrence of very nice specimens of rutile, anatase, quartz, and adularia. Other interesting species include albite, brookite, and tetrahedrite. Chalcopyrite in association with pyrite, magnetite, and chlorite also occurs (Biagioni et al., 2019).

Rutile is usually found in fractured dolostone layers within the marble. Bracci et al. (1978) reported relatively high TiO2 contents (500 g/g) in the Crestola Bassa (Pianello) dolostone, indicating that the geochemistry of the country rocks controls the mineralogy of the veins.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References