Prograde metamorphic evolution and development of chloritoid-bearing eclogitic assemblages in subcontinental metagabbro (Sesia-Lanzo zone, Italy)

In the coronitic metagabbroic rocks of the Corio and Monastero metagabbro bodies in the continental Sesia-Lanzo zone of the western Italian Alps, a variety of mineral reactions that testify to prograde conditions from greenschist to eclogite-facies can be recognised. A microstructural and microchemical study of a series of samples characterized by coronitic textures and pseudomorphic replacement of the original igneous minerals has allowed the prograde reactions undergone by the rocks to be established. In completely eclogitized coronitic samples, paragonite, blue amphibole, garnet, epidote, fine grained jadeite and chloritoid occur in plagioclase microdomains (former igneous plagioclase). The mafic mineral microdomains consist of glaucophane and garnet. Complexly-zoned amphiboles constrain changing metamorphic conditions: cores of pre-Alpine brown hornblende and/or tremolite are preserved inside rims of a sodic-calcic amphibole that are in turn surrounded by a sodic amphibole. The main highpressure mineral assemblage, as seen in mylonites, involves glaucophane, chloritoid, epidote, garnet +/- phengite, +/- paragonite. Some layers within the gabbro contain garnet, omphacite, glaucophane, and acid dykes crosscutting the gabbro body contain jadeite, quartz, garnet, epidote and paragonite. The presence of chloritoid-bearing high-pressure assemblages reflects hydration of the gabbros during their pre-Alpine exhumation prior to subduction, as well as the composition of the microdomains operating during subduction. The pressure and temperature conditions of gabbro transformation during subduction are inferred to be 450-550 degrees C at up to 2 GPa on the basis of the chloritoid-bearing assemblages. The factors controlling the reaction pathway to form chloritoid-bearing high-pressure assemblages in mafic rocks are inferred from these observations. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.