Geology of the Saint-Marcel valley metaophiolites (Northwestern Alps, Italy)

Abstract

The geological map of the Saint-Marcel valley at the scale of 1:20,000 illustrates the tectonic setting of metaophiolites from the southern Aosta Valley, in the Italian side of the Western Alpine belt. The map highlights the sharp contact between the metaophiolitic basement and its metasedimentary cover, which mainly consists of quartzites, marbles, and calcschists. In spite of the Alpine tectonics, this contact is regarded as deriving from the original oceanic crust/sediments interface. Metaophiolites mostly consist of metabasalts hosting Fe–Cu sulphide mineralisations, characterised by high-pressure metamorphic imprint. These rocks likely represent the shallowest portion of the Tethyan oceanic lithosphere created near the axis of the slow-spreading ridge where hydrothermal fluid circulation was active. Selected key-sections through metasediments reveal a consistent internal lithostratigraphy, in spite of the pervasive metamorphic and tectonic reworking acting during the Alpine evolution. Metasediments reflect various sedimentation episodes starting from pelagic and proximal settings to the onset of the orogenic stage. The Saint-Marcel valley metasediments thus reflect a changing in the sedimentation environments through time and space during the overall geologic evolution.

Keywords

• Metaophiolite
• Western Alps
• Aosta Valley
• Zermatt Saas unit
• metasediments
• eclogite-facies