Volume 26, Issue No. 1, 2001

STRUCTURES AND MICROSTRUCTURES IN A THRUST RELATED, GREENSCHIST-FACIES TECTONIC MELANGE, VOLTRI GROUP (NW ITALY)

Reinoud L.M. Vissers, Eilard H. Hoogerduijn Strating*, Martijn Heijmans and Maarten Krabbendam**

Geodynamics Research Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands (e-mail: rvissers@earth.ruu.nl).

* Present address: Petroleum Development Oman, Muscat, Oman.

** Present address: BGS Murchison House, West mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, Scotland, UK.

Keywords: tectonic mélange, structure, thrusting, ophiolites. Voltri Massif, Italy.

ABSTRACT

The ophiolitic Voltri Group in the eastern part of the Ligurian Alps (NW Italy) is made up of a number of thrust sheets emplaced during Alpine collision. These thrust sheets include (1) the Voltri-Rossiglione calcschist unit of Mesozoic high-pressure calcareous micaschists, metavolcanics and slices of serpentinite, overlain by (2) the Beigua serpentinite unit, of mainly antigorite serpentinite and eclogitic metagabbro, in turn overlain by (3) the Erro-Tobbio peridotites. In the northern part of the Voltri Massif, a conspicuous mélange-type lithology occurs along the contact of the Beigua serpentinite unit and the Voltri-Rossiglione calcschist unit. In the vicinity of the contact, the structure in the hanging-wall serpentinites is dominated by kink-type crenulations. Towards the base of the serpentinite nappe these crenulations become intense, and veins and patches of talc + chlorite + tremolite + carbonate replace the original antigorite-dominated assemblage. The thrust itself is marked by a layer, at least several tens of metres thick, of intensely deformed and foliated antigorite-bearing talc-chlorite-tremolite schist, enclosing rounded and lense-shaped (phacoid) blocks, up to 25 metres across, of retrogressed eclogitic metagabbro, antigorite serpentinite, metabasic rock, calcschist and schistose micaceous marble. The main features of this chaotic lithology meet the descriptive criteria of a tectonic mélange. The structures and assemblages in the wall rock units and those in the mélange indicate that the mélange lithology developed at a relatively late stage of greenschist facies ductile thrusting, emplacing the Beigua unit onto the rocks of the Voltri-Rossiglione unit. The structures indicate that the blocks and lenses were formed during localized deformation in a relatively narrow zone along the thrust plane via intense stretching and boudinage of the various lithologies in the foot- and hanging wall. The development of talc-chlorite-tremolite-carbonate assemblages at the expense of the overriding antigorite serpentinites require significant calcium-metasomatism, hence extensive fluid activity, whilst the microstructures in the mélange matrix suggest that the talc-chlorite-tremolite-carbonate assemblage was mechanically weak. It is suggested that both fluid activity and the associated metamorphic reactions strongly facilitated ductile to semi-brittle deformation along the thrust, leading to progressive fragmentation and mixing of the different lithologies and development of a tectonic mélange.