Abstract
The Calabrian crustal section, situated at the border of the Adriatic microplate, has a distinct layered structure: Over a distance of about 50 km one can trace a rock sequence from granulite-grade (from 7.5 to 5.5 kbar) through granitoids and amphibolite-facies gneisses into unmetamorphosed Paleozoic and younger sediments. The upper and the lower crustal sections are believed to have been part of the same crustal sequence since the late Hercynian because intrusive contacts of this age are found in both sections.
The lower crustal section is younger than 1.3 b. y. and, at least in part, as young as 0.55 b. y. It experienced its main metamorphism, crustal differentiation, and first uplift event during the Hercynian orogeny (~300 m. y.), but was brought to the surface (~10 m. y.) in the course of movements along the Adriatic plate boundary during Alpine time. The lower crust consists of an upper metapelite unit (5 – 6 km) resting on a mainly metabasic unit (2 km) in which zircons point to a magmatic formation age of about 550 m. y. The high proportion (75%) of granulite-facies, mainly pelitic metasediments characterize the lower crustal section. The pelitic rocks are highly restitic and a 40% peraluminous granite component is estimated to have been extracted.
The upper crust consists of a variety of metasediments (amphibolite- to greenschist-facies) and a high proportion of mostly peraluminous orthogneisses (500 – 520 m. y.), which possibly represent the earliest partial melts of the now exposed lower crustal metapelites. Hercynian granitoids (300 – 280 m. y.) range (bottom to top) from calc-alkaline diorites and tonalites to granodiorites and peraluminous S-type granites. Only the latter display Nd model ages (1.3 b. y.) identical to the lower crustal metapelites, which seem to be the source of these granites.
The thermal and baric evolution of the lower crust is characterised by a clockwise P-T-time path (kyanite - sillimanite - andalusite - kyanite). Almost all garnets in metapelites grew in the stability field of sillimanite under kinematic conditions, but the latest and highest metamorphic stage occurred after any penetrative deformation. The end of the granulite-facies metamorphism was induced by a tectonic event during which the lower crust was uplifted (5–- 10 km) into middle crustal levels, where it slowly cooled (2°/m. y.) isobarically during Mesozoic time. Final uplift was rapid and started some 25 m. y. ago. The oldest sediments on top of lower crustal rocks are 10 m. y. old.
The most likely geotectonic setting of the granulite-facies metamorphism in Calabria is a continental margin above a subduction zone.
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Schenk, V. (1990). The Exposed Crustal Cross Section of Southern Calabria, Italy: Structure and Evolution of a Segment of Hercynian Crust. In: Salisbury, M.H., Fountain, D.M. (eds) Exposed Cross-Sections of the Continental Crust. NATO ASI Series, vol 317. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0675-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0675-4_2
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