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Working on:
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1) Madurai Block
The Madurai Block in the Southern Granulite Terrain of India is a key location for
studying the nature of the formation and the later break-up of the supercontinent
Gondwana in the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, as it is situated between two major
Neoproterozoic orogenic belts, the East Africa Orogen and the Kuunga Orogen. The
aim of this petrological-structural-
geochronological project is to unravel the tectono-
metamorphic evolution of the Madurai Block. The results will help to understand the
geodynamic evolution that affected present-day southern India during the formation
of Gondwana and possibly that of the supercontinent Rodinia, which formed in the
Meso- to Neoproterozoic. The definition and recognition of specific crustal domains
and the knowledge of their tectono-metamorphic evolution will contribute to correlate
crustal domains in the now dispersed crustal fragments of Gondwana. The crustal
evolution of the Madurai Block will be reconstructed by integrating field observations,
structural analysis and petrological investigations with LA-ICPMS zircon analyses and
EMPA-monazite dating on ultrahigh- to high-temperature metamorphic meta-
sedimentary and metaigneous rocks.
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3) Calabria (Southern Italy)
In the Serre of Calabria (Italy)
granulite facies rocks, representing a continuous section through a
Hercynian lower crust, were thrusted onto retrograded rocks along a
major shearzone during the Alpine orogeny. Petrological investigations
on relic Hercynian mineral assemblages in paragneisses of the
retrograded rock units showed that they constitute the former mid- to
upper crustal continuation of the Hercynian lower crustal section
(Brandt & Schenk, in prep.). Formation of prograde-zoned garnet
during Alpine orogeny enabled to constrain a low-tempertature -
mid-pressure metamorphic event in the underlying rock units which is
related to crustal thickening during the collision between Africa and
Europe.
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