Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Tethyan ophiolites show an apparent poorly organized association of ultramafic andmafic rocks. By contrast tothe complete mantle-crustal sections of Semail-type ophiolite sheets, Tethyan ophiolites are characterized by asmaller amount of mafic rocks (gabbros and basalts), by the absence of any sheeted dyke complex and by thefrequent occurrence of oceanic sediments stratigraphically overlying mantle-derived peridotites and associatedgabbroic intrusions. Therefore, they are considered as typical remnants of oceanic lithosphere formed in slowspreadingenvironment or in ocean–continent transition at distal passive margins. In the very first models offormation of the Tethyan ophiolites, in the years 1980, the geodynamical processes leading to mantle unroofingwere poorly understood due to the paucity of data and concepts available at that time from the present-dayoceans. In particular, at that time, little work had focused on the distribution, origin and significance ofmafic rocks with respect to the dominant surrounding ultramafics. Here, we reconsider the geology of sometypical metaophiolites from the Western Alps and Corsica, and we show how results from the past decadeobtained in the current oceans ask for reassessing the significance of the Tethyan ophiolites in general. Revisitedexamples include a set of representative metaophiolites from the blueschists units of the Western Alps (Queyrasregion) and from Alpine Corsica (Golo Valley). Field relationships between the ophiolitic basement andthe metasedimentary/metavolcanic oceanic cover are described, outlining a typical character of the Tethyanophiolite lithological associations. Jurassic marbles and polymictic ophiolite metabreccias are unconformablyoverlying the mantle-gabbo basement, in a way strictly similar to what is observed in the non-metamorphicAppennine ophiolites or Chenaillet massif. This confirms that very early tectonic juxtaposition of ultramafic andmafic rocks occurred in the oceanic domain before subduction. This juxtaposition resulted from tectonic activitythat is now assigned to the development of detachment faults and to the formation of Oceanic Core Complexes(OCCs) at the axis of slow spreading ridges. This fundamental Plate Tectonics process is responsible for the exhumationand for the axial denudation of mantle rocks and gabbros at diverging plate boundaries. In addition, fieldrelationships between the discontinuous basaltic formations and the ultramafic–mafic basement indicate that thistectonic stage is followed or not by a volcanic stage.We discuss this issue in the light of available field constraints.
ISSN: 0012-8252

insu-01096467
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01096467
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01096467/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01096467/file/Lagabrielle-EarthSciRev-2014.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.earscirev.2014.11.004

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Alpine Corsica consists of a stack of variably metamorphosed units of continental and Tethys-derived rocks. It represents an excellent example of high-pressure (HP) orogenic belt, such as the Western Alps, exposed over a small and accessible area. Compared to the Western Alps, the geology of Alpine Corsica is poorly unraveled. During the 1970s-80s, based on either lithostratigraphic or metamorphic field observations, various classifications of the belt have been proposed, but these classifications have been rarely matched together. Furthermore, through time, the internal complexity of large domains has been progressively left aside in the frame of large-scale geodynamic reconstructions. As a consequence, major open questions on the internal structure of the belt have remained unsolved. Apart from a few local studies, Alpine Corsica has not benefited of modern developments in petrology and basin research. This feature results in several uncertainties when combining lithostratigraphic and metamorphic patterns and, consequently, in the definition of an exhaustive architecture of the belt. In this paper we provide a review on the geology of Alpine Corsica, paying particular attention to the available lithostratigraphic and metamorphic classifications of the metamorphic terranes. These data are completed by a new and exhaustive metamorphic dataset obtained by means of thermometry based on Raman Spectroscopy of Carbonaceous Material (RSCM). This technique provides reliable insights on the peak temperature of the metamorphic history for CM-bearing metasediments. A detailed metamorphic characterization of metasediments, which have been previously largely ignored due to retrogression or to the lack of diagnostic mineralogy, is thus obtained and fruitfully coupled with the available lithostratigraphic data. Nine main tectono-metamorphic units are defined, from subgreenschist (ca. 280-300 °C) to the lawsonite-eclogite-facies (ca. 500-550 °C) condition. These units are homogeneous in metamorphism, laterally continuous and have characteristic lithostratigraphic features. This study also suggests a direct link between the pre-orogenic extensional setting and the present-day compressional structure of Alpine Corsica, indicating that large sections of subducted lithosphere were subducted and exhumed as coherent domains. These features provide important insight on the mechanism of stacking and exhumation of HP rocks, and make Alpine Corsica a unique reference for mountain-building processes in Tethyan-type orogens.
ISSN: 0012-8252

hal-00814433
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00814433
DOI : 10.1016/j.earscirev.2012.10.003

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The volume comprises some of the contributions presented during the 10th edition of the Alpine Meeting "CorseAlp 2011". It has been held in Saint Florent (Corsica) between 10th and 16th of April 2011 under the auspices of Societé Geologique de France, Società Geologica Italiana and the INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) and with the collaboration of colleagues of Université de Corse (M.-M. Spella, M. and J. Ferrandini and L. Ciancaleoni) and the support of the city council of S. Florent. The meeting was framed in the series of "Alpine Workshops" e.g., Siegesmund et al. (2008), Handy and Rosenberg (2011), which are held every two years to develop interdisciplinary research on Alpine-type orogens. It hosted a variety of topical sessions from regional geology to process-oriented field and laboratory studies and gave the opportunity to collect multidisciplinary and multiscale approaches to geodynamic studies including continental rifting and ocean opening, oceanic and continental subduction, late- to post orogenic extension, exhumation of deep seated rocks, back-arc opening and microcontinent rotation, interfering orogenic-scale tectonics and surface processes, tectonics and seismic hazard within the Alpine chain and Mediterranean realms.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00795580
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00795580

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
In the Schistes Lustres of Alpine Corsica (France) serpentinized mantle rocks are associated with continental basement and meta-volcanic/-seclimentary cover rocks. The relationships among these different lithologies are especially well exposed in the Monte San Petrone unit, where Alpine metamorphism reached lawsonite-eclogite conditions. The contact between serpentinites and slivers of continental basement, relatively flat-lying over several kilometers, is characterized by evidence of cataclastic deformation pre-dating Alpine High-Pressure ductile fabrics. The serpentinite/continental basement pair is stratigraphically overlain by metasediments with a typical Jurassic-Cretaceous supra-ophiolitic lithostratigraphy, with metaradiolarites passing upward to marbles and cal cschists. Noticeably, no evidence of cataclastic deformation is found in metasediments. These observations indicate that the lithostratigraphy of the Monte San Petrone unit was established during a pre-Alpine polyphase evolution, which culminated in extensive brittle deformation along a flat-lying detachment fault prior to the deposition of Jurassic sediments. We suggest that the inferred Mesozoic extensional tectonics were related to the opening of the Westem Tethys. The Mesozoic architecture of the Monte San Petrone area, which is typical of an Ocean-Continent Transition (OCT) zone, was preserved despite Alpine deformation and metamorphism, when the different lithologies (i.e. meta-ophiolites, continent-derived rocks and metasediments) underwent a common metamorphic evolution, culminating at T=490-550 degrees C and P= 2.2-2.6 GPa. Similar tectonostratigraphic associations are observed in other high-pressure terranes of Alpine Corsica, suggesting that inherited OCT-type domains may be common in Alpine-type orogens.
ISSN: 0024-4937

hal-00617744
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617744
DOI : 10.1016/j.lithos.2011.02.013

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Corsica is located in the Mediterranean sea, about 90 km from the Italian coast of Tuscany and 175 km from the French Riviera. This relatively large island stretches for 180 km in the north-south direction and 85 Km east-west. The rugged landscape, with a mean elevation of ca. 500 m and the highest point at 2710 m (Monte Cinto) is interrupted only by a major plain along the east coast. CorseAlp 2011 was held in April 2011. A link to the website is here: CorseAlp 2011. The CorseAlp field trips were designed to introduce the participants to the general features of the geology of Alpine Corsica and to recent specific discoveries. Field trip 1 focused on the geology of the Ocean-Continent Transition preserved in the Monte San Petrone, in Central Corsica, which was subducted to eclogite facies conditions during the Alpine orogeny. The three days post-workshop field trip (Field trip 2) focused on the general architecture of Alpine Corsica in an EW transect between the Balagne region and Bastia. The main topics of Field trip 1 and 2 allow discussion about the overall evolution of Alpine Corsica in the framework of Mediterranean geodynamics, with a focus on the most controversial aspects.
Journal of the Virtual Explorer

hal-00688965
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00688965

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The presence of two regional seismic networks in southeastern France provides us high-quality data to investigate upper mantle flow by measuring the splitting of teleseismic shear waves induced by seismic anisotropy. The 10 three-component and broadband stations installed in Corsica, Provence, and western Alps efficiently complete the geographic coverage of anisotropy measurements performed in southern France using temporary experiments deployed on geodynamic targets such as the Pyrenees and the Massif Central. Teleseismic shear waves (mainly SKS and SKKS) are used to determine the splitting parameters: the fast polarization direction and the delay time. Delay times ranging between 1.0 and 1.5 s have been observed at most sites, but some larger delay times, above 2.0 s, have been observed at some stations, such as in northern Alps or Corsica, suggesting the presence of high strain zones in the upper mantle. The azimuths of the fast split shear waves define a simple and smooth pattern, trending homogeneously WNW–ESE in the Nice area and progressively rotating to NW–SE and to NS for stations located further North in the Alps. This pattern is in continuity with the measurements performed in the southern Massif Central and could be related to a large asthenospheric flow induced by the rotation of the Corsica–Sardinia lithospheric block and the retreat of the Apenninic slab. We show that seismic anisotropy nicely maps the route of the slab from the initial rifting phase along the Gulf of Lion (30–22 Ma) to the drifting of the Corsica–Sardinia lithospheric block accompanied by the creation of new oceanic lithosphere in the Liguro–Provençal basin (22–17 Ma). In the external and internal Alps, the pattern of the azimuth of the fast split waves follows the bend of the alpine arc. We propose that the mantle flow beneath this area could be influenced or perhaps controlled by the Alpine deep penetrative structures and that the Alpine lithospheric roots may have deflected part of the horizontal asthenospheric flow around its southernmost tip.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00109313
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00109313
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00109313/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00109313/file/barruol_TGRS_Tphy2004_hal.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2004.08.002

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Mediterranean geodynamic system is an exceptional natural laboratory to study the complexities of back-arc extension during subduction rollback. Corsica is a key locality that recorded the Alpine subduction-collision history followed by 30 Ma of the Apennines slab rollback, responsible for the successive opening, from West to East, of the Liguro-Provençal basin and the Tyrrhenian Sea. The overall strain pattern of the Alpine metamorphic units of Alpine Corsica is studied through a synthesis of i) available geological maps, ii) geochronological data and iii) newly acquired structural data relative to successive events of ductile and brittle extension, Three main stages of extension are recorded: 1/ Syn-metamorphic Oligocene extension accommodated by N140° trending ductile shear zones, that correspond to the reactivation of a major Alpine thrust; 2/ Burdigalian ramp-flat extension with N60°-70° trending fault zones that controlled the deposition of onshore piggy-back basins (e.g. St Florent basin), and 3/ Serravalian N-S trending fault zones. From a geodynamical point of view, these successive extensional deformations in Alpine Corsica can be correlated to the history of the Apennines slab rollback. The two first stages are related to a southeastward rollback of the Appennines slab that successively triggered: 1/ Continental rifting in Oligocene leading to the opening of the Liguro-Provençal basin and 2/ Burdigalian extension with N60°-70° trending fault zone, oblique to the Alpine thrust that, after a counterclockwise rotation of the Corso-Sardinian block, became unable to accommodate extension. Finally, the third stage that gave NS-trending fault zones developed in Serravalian, at the onset of Tyrrhenian rifting, related to an eastward rollback of the Apennines slab, as a response of slab tearing in Sicily.
ISSN: 0040-1951

insu-01424859
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01424859
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01424859/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01424859/file/gueydan-tectonoph-2017.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2016.12.028

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : CorseAlp 2011 was held in April 2011. A link to the website is here: CorseAlp 2011. The CorseAlp field trips were designed to introduce the participants to the general features of the geology of Alpine Corsica and to recent specific discoveries. The three-day post-workshop field trip (Field trip 2) focused on the general architecture of Alpine Corsica in an EW transect between the Balagne region and Bastia. First day: The internal zones of Alpine Corsica: from Bastia to Saint Florent. Intinerary: Saint Florent, Serra di Pigno, Cima Malaspina, Patrimonio, Saint Florent. Second day: The Tenda massif and its eastern margin. Intinerary: Saint Florent, Casta, Fontana Porragghia, Rue de Morello, Fontana a Murello quarry; Fornali. Third day: The external zones of Alpine Corsica in the Balagne region. Intineray: Saint Florent, Colle di U'Vezzu, Ostriconi, Belgodere, San Sebastiano Chapel, San Colombano, Ponte Leccia, Francardo, Bastia.
Journal of the Virtual Explorer

hal-00688971
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00688971

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : International audience
Age constraints on the protoliths, deformation, metamorphism and melting events are key parameters when correlating different continental lithospheric remnants among each other and disentangling their evolution within large-scale orogens. In situ U-Th-Pb chemical dating on monazites using Electron Probe Micro-Analyser (EPMA) has been performed on eight samples throughout the Variscan Maures-Tanneron massif (SE France) in order to date the medium to high-tectonothermal events related to the Variscan orogeny.Results indicate a polyphased crustal evolution : (i) U-Th-Pb ages obtained in polygenetic monazite grain cores gave inherited Upper Ordovician (456 ± 11 Ma) age, highlighting the large scale occurrence of the Ordovician magmatic activity in the North Gondwanian margin. An Early Devonian (404 ± 10 Ma) age may date a protolith emplacement related to calc-alkaline supra-subduction magmatism or could be associated to an early medium-grade metamorphism, prior to collisional stage. (ii) The crustal thickening stage has been further recorded in prograde metamorphic monazites formed during the underthrusting and subsequent nappe stacking events, under amphibolite facies conditions. This stage is dated between 382 ± 11 (Middle Devonian) and 331 ± 5 Ma (Late Visean). (iii) An orogenic partial melting event took place during Middle Carboniferous and is accompanied by the crystallization of crustal peraluminous magmas (Plan-de-la-Tour granite, 329 ± 3 Ma).This contribution demonstrates the capacity of monazite to record the prograde path of rocks during increasing metamorphic conditions related to stages of crustal thickening, and the robustness of the U-Th-Pb chronometer in monazite despite the overprinting of high-grade thermal events, including partial melting. The age ranges of the different orogenic stages reported in this study are in good agreement with those reported in adjacent Variscan Corsica and Sardinia; while correlations with other nearest Variscan massifs like the Argentera massif in the southwestern Alps or the French Massif Central remain more hypothetic. The Internal Zone of the Maures-Tanneron massif, and more widely the Internal Zone of the Maures-Tanneron-Corsica-Sardinia segment, is part of the southern orogenic root system of the Variscan belt.
EISSN: 1777-5817

insu-01140973
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01140973
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.186.2-3.145

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Nature Publishing Group
Résumé : International audience
Carbon is transported from Earth's surface into its interior at subduction zones. Carbonates in sediments overlying hydrothermally altered rocks (including serpentinites) within the subducted slab are the main carriers of this carbon1. Part of the carbon is recycled back to the surface by volcanism, but some is transferred to the deep Earth1, 2. Redox transformations during shallow subduction control the transfer and long-term fate of carbon, but are poorly explored1, 3. Here we use carbon stable isotopes and Raman spectroscopy to analyse the reduction of carbonate in an exhumed serpentinite-sediment contact in Alpine Corsica, France. We find that highly crystalline graphite was formed during subduction metamorphism and was concentrated in the sediment, within a reaction zone in direct contact with the serpentinite. The graphite in this reaction zone has a carbon isotopic signature (δ13C) of up to 0.8±0.1‰, similar to that of the original calcite that composed the sediments, and is texturally associated with the calcium-bearing mineral wollastonite that is also formed in the process. We use mass-balance calculations to show that about 9% of the total carbonaceous matter in the sedimentary unit results from complete calcite reduction in the reaction zone. We conclude that graphite formation, under reducing and low-temperature conditions, provides a mechanism to retain carbon in a subducting slab, aiding transport of carbon into the deeper Earth.
ISSN: 1752-0894

hal-00903464
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00903464
DOI : 10.1038/NGEO1827

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : CorseAlp 2011 was held in April 2011. A link to the website is here: CorseAlp 2011. The CorseAlp field trips were designed to introduce the participants to the general features of the geology of Alpine Corsica and to recent specific discoveries. Field trip 1 focused on the geology of the Ocean-Continent Transition preserved in the Monte San Petrone, in Central Corsica, which was subducted to eclogite facies conditions during the Alpine orogeny. Field Guide 1 itinerary: Bastia, Golo Valley, Piedicroce, M.S.Petrone and S.Florent.
Journal of the Virtual Explorer

hal-00689755
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00689755

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
The Alps/Apennines system, as well as many collisional orogens through the world, shows a finite deformation produced during a long geological history which involves numerous superimposed tectonic events. As a result, complex and often contrasted reconstructions for the setting and tectonics of the different stages of the growing and interfering Alps/Apennines system have been proposed. To enlight some of the geometric and kinematic signatures related to past geodynamics in the composite Alps(Corsica)/Apennines system, we analyse the major deformation processes, their superimposition, and resulting finite structural geometries in the currently growing Taiwan orogenic system. The Taiwan island and its offshore northward and southward prolongations represent the emerged and the sub-marine parts of an orogenic wedge related to the interactions between the Eurasian and the Philippine Sea and recording different subduction settings. Using the Taiwan actualistic geodynamic scenarios and the related first-order geometric-kinematic constraints, we will attempt a reconstruction of the tectonic evolution for the Corsica/Apennines orogenic system foregrounding the key role of continental subduction and subduction reversal during such evolution.
ISSN: 1437-3254

hal-00617149
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617149
DOI : 10.1007/s00531-010-0598-y

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The analysis of field relationships between allochthonous crystalline slivers, ultramafic units and associated sedimentary cover in the high-pressure Schistes Lustrés units of northern Corsica allows reconstruction of the pre-orogenic architecture of a fossil Mesozoic Ocean-Continent Transition (OCT) of the Tethys basin. The studied area, encompassing the Serra di Pigno and Col de Téghime areas (Cap Corse) is composed of an assemblage of prealpine basement sheets made up of serpentinized mantle rocks, Permian gabbros and gneisses, locally associated with Paleozoic metabasites and micaschists. The sedimentary cover includes numerous intervals of calc-schists, marbles, quartzites, micaschists and dolomitic metabreccias yielding a great variety of lithostratigraphical successions. The metasedimentary sequences do not show affinities with the typical cover series of the Prépiémontais margin domains. This implies an origin from a more internal domain (oceanward) for the studied units. In addition, the sedimentary cover of the ultramafic basement units do not display the characters of the classical Alpine ophiolites but bear lithological features showing affinities with both continental and oceanic environments. We assume that the high variability of the sedimentary successions as well as the presence of a basement composed of continental and upper-mantle rocks is consistent with an origin at an OCT. The acidic basement slivers are regarded as former extensional allochthons of continental crust abandoned during breakup on a newly exhumed seafloor of peridotite composition. Such extensional allochthons, will then logically constitute the most internal continental slices buried at great depth during Alpine subduction. This work shows that a lot has to be expected from a revision of the Schistes Lustrés lithostratigraphy in the light of the new concepts of the evolution of the OCT domains.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00795578
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00795578
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.06.013

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
In Alpine Corsica (France), deeply subducted metabasalts are well preserved as lawsonite-bearing eclogite (Law-Ecl), occurrence of which is restricted to similar to 10 localities worldwide. The Corsican Law-Ecl, consisting of omphacite + lawsonite + garnet + phengite + titanite, occurs as both single undeformed metabasaltic pillows surrounded by lawsonite blueschist (Law-Bs), and carbonate-bearing eclogitic veins. Law-Bs are found as variably deformed metabasaltic pillows locally cross-cut by eclogitic veins and consist of glaucophane + actinolite + lawsonite + garnet + phengite + titanite. Field evidence and microstructures reveal that both Law-Ecl and Law-Bs are stable at the metamorphic peak in the lawsonite-eclogite stability field. Isochemical phase diagrams (pseudosections) calculated for representative Law-Ecl and Law-Bs samples indicate that both lithologies equilibrated at the same conditions of similar to 520 +/- 20 degrees C and 2.3 +/- 0.1 GPa. Therefore, the coexistence at the same peak metamorphic conditions of Law-Ecl and Law-Bs implies that different portions of deeply subducted oceanic crust may store significantly different H2O contents, depending on bulk-rock chemical composition. In addition, thermodynamic modelling of phase equilibria indicates that the occurring progressive dehydration reactions, which are significantly depending on bulk-rock chemical composition, strongly influence rock densification and eclogite formation in subducting slabs.
ISSN: 0263-4929

hal-00617768
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617768
DOI : 10.1111/j.1525-1314.2011.00931.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Diamond-bearing UHP metamorphic rocks witness for subduction of lithospheric slabs into the mantle and their return to shallow levels. In this study we present U–Pb and trace elements analyses of zircon and rutile inclusions from a diamond-bearing garnet megacryst collected in a mélange unit exposed on the northern margin of Africa (Edough Massif, NE Algeria). Large rutile crystals (up to 300 μm in size) analyzed in situ provide a U–Pb age of interpreted as dating the prograde to peak subduction stage of the mafic protolith. Trace element analyses of minute zircons (≤30 μm) indicate that they formed in equilibrium with the garnet megacryst at a temperature of 740–810 °C, most likely during HP retrograde metamorphism. U–Pb analyses provide a significantly younger age of attributed to exhumation of the UHP units. This study allows bracketing the age of UHP metamorphism in the Western Mediterranean Orogen to the Oligocene/early Miocene, thus unambiguously relating UHP metamorphism to the Alpine history. Exhumation of these UHP units is coeval with the counterclockwise rotation of the Corsica–Sardinia block and most likely resulted from subduction rollback that was driven by slab pull.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-01622789
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01622789
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.06.043

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
Although lawsonite-bearing rocks are rare in exhumed high-pressure (HP) terranes, they are considered to exert a primary role in subduction dynamics. Recent observations in natural settings have shown that fluid–rock interaction at HP conditions, including metasomatism, may lead to unusually high lawsonite amounts even in rocks that originally contained little or no lawsonite. This process may therefore bear important implications for element recycling in subduction zones. A detailed characterization of the geochemical fingerprints associated with lawsonite metasomatism is presented in this contribution. The studied rocks belong to the HP terranes of Alpine Corsica (France), which is the largest documented exposure for lawsonite metasomatism. Metasomatic lawsonite displays complex compositional zoning, including high trace element, Cr and Ti content. The trace element content is much higher compared with the average of non-metasomatic lawsonite, and is in line with the re-incorporation of large amounts of trace elements (e.g. REE, Sr, Pb, Th) in the rock during metasomatism, as shown by mass transfer calculations. Our data suggest that serpentinites represented the main fluid source for the metasomatism, with concurrent contribution of other, possibly Ca-rich lithologies, such as mafic or meta-sedimentary rocks. We propose that the breakdown of metasomatic lawsonite may contribute to the genesis of magmas and their characteristic geochemical signatures.
ISSN: 0263-4929

hal-01107395
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01107395
DOI : 10.1111/jmg.12074