From floor to roof of a batholith: geology and petrography of the north-eastern Serre Batholith (Calabria, southern Italy)

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe present an original geological map of the north-eastern Serre Batholith (southern Italy), together with new field and petrographic data of its main five granitoid units. Our study provides an overall picture of a c. 13-thick floor-to-roof batholith exposure, focusing on the relationships between the magmatic units, which were sequentially emplaced at depth from c. 23 to c. 6 km, in a time interval from c. 297 Ma to c. 292 Ma. Indeed, this composite and zoned batholith, with its crustal scale exposure and large compositional and structural diversity, is a real natural laboratory where to test models of granitoid magma production and batholith construction. The new geological map and related field and petrographic data provide a valuable addition to the existing knowledge of the Serre Batholith and, at the same time, a new starting point for further in-depth multidisciplinary investigations aimed to better understand its architecture and build-up mechanisms.

Keywords

• Geological map
• composite batholith
• magmatic relationships
• field and petrographic features
• Serre Massif
• Variscan granitoids