Colle del Baracun serpentinite outcrops (Colle Barant serpentinite outcrops), Bobbio Pellice, Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Colle del Baracun serpentinite outcrops (Colle Barant serpentinite outcrops)	Group of Outcrops
Bobbio Pellice	Municipality
Metropolitan City of Turin	Metropolitan City
Piedmont	Region
Italy	Country

Outcrops of massive serpentinite, crossed by Alpine metamorphic veinlets with fibrous antigorite, chrysotile and tremolite, in the area surrounding the pass known as Colle del Baracun or Colle Barant.

Massive serpentinite, in which the relics of the original mineral phases and textures are poorly preserved, hosts Mg-Al and Fe-Ti metagabbro intrusions. Metagabbroic intrusions are metres to tens of metres thick and are composed mainly of Mg-Al metagabbro characterised by the occurrence of Cr-bearing omphacite ("smaragdite" of the old authors). Less common Fe-Ti metagabbro intrusions occur as metres-thick dykes and contain eclogitic assemblages of garnet-omphacite-rutile. At the contacts with their host metaperidotites, all metagabbro intrusions are extensively rodingitised. The massive serpentinite immediately beneath the Baracun shear zone includes 50-cm- to 1-m-thick mylonitic serpentinite with sheared ophicarbonate veins. These carbonate-rich veins, which also crosscut the talc-and-chlorite schist of the Baracun shear zone, are overprinted by S1 foliation and F2 folds, constraining the timing of hydrothermal activities to a pre–eclogitic-facies metamorphic stage.


The placeholder indicates the serpentinite lenticular outcrop embedded in a large body of rocks of the Baracun shear zone, consisting of talc and chlorite schists with blocks of Mg-Al metagabbro and Fe-Ti metagabbro.

A large body of serpentinite occurs to the SW of the pass and embedds a decametric rodingite dyke (44.7707265° N, 7.0629167° E). To the south of a NW-SE–striking transtensional fault, a succession consisting mainly of metabasalt crops out. It preserves relics of brecciated structures and is characterised by alternating greenish/yellowish levels, composed of albite, epidote, and clinozoisite, and dark-green levels of Na-Ca amphibole, garnet, and chlorite.

Another important serpentinite body crops out north of the pass (Punta Barant - Curbarant area; 44.776923° N, 7.063321° E) and stretches northwest towards Villanova (see La Colletta locality).

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References