Revised Thermobarometry of Alpe Arami and other Garnet Peridotites from the Central Alps

The four, currently best constrained, independent thermobarometersfor garnet peridotites, namely Taylor’s (Neues Jahrbuchfür Mineralogie, Abhandlungen 172, 381–408, 1998)pyroxene solvus and Krogh’s (Contributions to Mineralogyand Petrology 99, 44–48, 1988) clinopyroxene–garnetFe–Mg exchange thermometers, and Taylor’s (1998)Al-in-orthopyroxene and Nimis & Taylor’s (Contributionsto Mineralogy and Petrology, 139, 541–544, 2000) Cr-in-clinopyroxenebarometers, have been applied to garnet lherzolites from theCentral Alps. Analyses from the literature, as well as new in-houseanalyses, all pertaining to core compositions of first-generation,garnet lherzolite minerals, have been selected for thermobarometriccalculations. The P–T data obtained for the three knowngarnet lherzolite occurrences in the Central Alps are tightlyconstrained, consistent with one another, and summarized asfollows: Alpe Arami, 3·2 GPa and 840°C; Monte Duria,3·0 GPa and 830°C; Cima di Gagnone, 3·0 GPaand 740°C. These values are consistent with experimentaldata on pargasite stability and composition in peridotitic systems.Our P–T estimates, along with microstructural and fieldgeological observations, indicate that the garnet lherzoliteparageneses form part of the prograde, Alpine, high-pressuremetamorphic sequence of the Adula–Cima Lunga unit. Thermobarometryshows that the garnet lherzolites reached a maximum depth ofsubduction of