Structural history of high-pressure metamorphic rocks in the southern vanoise massif,french alps,and their relation to alpine tectonic events

A nappe of amphibolite-facies metamorphic rocks of pre-Permian age in the southern Vanoise massif (the Arpont schist) has been affected by an Alpine HP/LT metamorphism. The first mesoscopically recognizable deformation (D₁) post-dated the high-pressure peak (jadeitic pyroxene + quartz, glaucophane + ?lawsonite), and was associated with glaucophane + epidote. D₁ produced a flat-lying schistosity and a NW-trending glaucophane lineation, and was probably associated with nappe displacement involving NW-directed subhorizontal shear. D₂ formed small-scale folds and a foliation associated with chlorite + albite. The changing parageneses during the period pre-D₁ to D₁ to D₂ suggest decreasing pressure, so that the deformation appears to have been related to the uplift history, rather than to the process of tectonic burial. D₂ was followed by a static metamorphism (green biotite + chlorite + albite), possibly of Lepontine age. SE-directed backthrusting and folding (D₃), and later differential uplift along steep faults, took place under low-grade conditions.