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Calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate “cement” phases and rare Ca-zeolite association at Colle Fabbri, Central Italy

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Central European Journal of Geosciences

Abstract

Very high temperature, Ca-rich alkaline magma intruded an argillite formation at Colle Fabbri, Central Italy, producing cordierite-tridymite metamorphism in the country rocks. An intense Ba-rich sulphate-carbonate-alkaline hydrothermal plume produced a zone of mineralization several meters thick around the igneous body. Reaction of hydrothermal fluids with country rocks formed calcium-silicate-hydrate (CSH), i.e., tobermorite-afwillite-jennite; calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate (CASH) — “cement” phases - i.e., thaumasite, strätlingite and an ettringite-like phase and several different species of zeolites: chabazite-Ca, willhendersonite, gismon-dine, three phases bearing Ca with the same or perhaps lower symmetry of phillipsite-Ca, levyne-Ca and the Ca-rich analogue of merlinoite. In addition, apophyllite-(KF) and/or apophyllite-(KOH), Ca−Ba-carbonates, portlandite and sulphates were present. A new polymorph from the pyrrhotite group, containing three layers of sphalerite-type structure in the unit cell, is reported for the first time. Such a complex association is unique. Most of these minerals are specifically related to hydration processes of: (1) pyrometamorphic metacarbonate/metapelitic rocks (natural analogues of cement clinkers); (2) mineralization between intrusive stocks and slates; and (3) high-calcium, alkaline igneous rocks such as melilitites and foidites as well as carbonatites. The Colle Fabbri outcrop offers an opportunity to study in situ complex crystalline overgrowth and specific crystal chemistry in mineral phases formed in igneous to hydrothermal conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università G. d’Annunzio, Chieti, Italy

    F. Stoppa

  2. Dipartimento Geomineralogico, Università di Bari, Bari, Italy

    F. Scordari & E. Mesto

  3. Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sobolev V.S. Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia

    V. V. Sharygin

  4. Via Dogali, 20, 31100, Treviso

    G. Bortolozzi

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  1. F. Stoppa
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  4. V. V. Sharygin
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  5. G. Bortolozzi
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Stoppa, F., Scordari, F., Mesto, E. et al. Calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate “cement” phases and rare Ca-zeolite association at Colle Fabbri, Central Italy. Cent. Eur. J. Geosci. 2, 175–187 (2010). https://doi.org/10.2478/v10085-010-0007-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10085-010-0007-6

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