Colle del Paschiet (Colle Paschietto), Balme, Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Colle del Paschiet (Colle Paschietto)	Pass
Balme	Commune
Metropolitan City of Turin	Metropolitan City
Piedmont	Region
Italy	Country

Colle del Paschiet (Colle Paschietto), Ala Valley, Lanzo Valleys, Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Colle del Paschiet (Colle Paschietto), Lanzo Valleys, Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italy

The pass (2435 m) separates Torre d'Ovarda (3075 m) from Punta Golai (2819 m) and connects Vallone del Paschiet (Balme, Ala Valley) to Vallone d'Ovarda (Lemie, Viù Valley).

On the pass, the passage from the Torre d'Ovarda prasinites, which include the ocellar chlorite-rich variety named "ovardite" by Strüver (1873 b), to the Punta Golai serpentinite and serpentine schists occurs.

The triangular area on the left of the path leading from Laghi Verdi to the pass, situated at a height of over 2300 m towards the summit of Punta Golai and the pass, roughly defines the Colle del Paschiet mineral site. Typical crystallised minerals in the rodingite fissures are grossular var. hessonite, epidote, clinochlore, diopside, hydroxylapatite, calcite, magnetite, and titanite. Lamellar titanite crystals are also found embedded in chlorite. White twinned crystals of albite occur in epidote veins. Magnetite and actinolite crystals are found in talc schists.

Since the beginning of the 19th century Colle del Paschiet is considered a classic locality for epidote, found as yellow-green to dark green simple and twinned crystals. Some uncommon crystals forms were studied by Marignac (1847), Hessenberg (1858), Della Valle (1890), and Zambonini (1901 and 1903). The more yellow crystals are ascribable to terms of the clinozoisite-epidote series and in some cases to almost pure clinozoisite (Balzac, 1916).

The very bright magnetite crystals embedded in talc schist mainly shows the {111} faces of octahedron and sometimes also faces of other forms, as the {510} and {611} faces (Repossi, 1942).

Very dark, sometimes almost black, zoned garnet (andradite) crystals were found at the beginning of the 1920s at an unspecified location in the upper Vallone del Paschiet (Laghi Verdi - Colle del Paschiet area), but a landslide completely obliterated the site. According to the professional mineral collector Antonio Castagneri Lench, whose young sons discovered the site, most of the recovered specimens were sold to collectors from Lyon (Grill, 1922).

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References