Western Alps

KUBLER (B.), MARTINI (P.) and VUAGNAT (M.) 1974. Very low grade metamorphism in the western Alps. Schweiz. Min. Petr. Mitt., 54 461-69. 

Fig. 1.1. Distribution, petrochemical affinity and ages of the main Plio-Quatemary magmatic centres in Italy. Location of the Eocene igneous body of Pietre Nere (Apulia) and of the Oligocene to Miocene magmatic provinces of Sardinia, Western Alps and Veneto is also indicated. Open symbols refer to outcrops below the sea level.

Fig. 2.9. Mantle-normalised incompatible element patterns for lamproites from Tuscany, Western Alps and south-eastern Spain. The Dora Maira metagranites and a Tuscany gneiss are also shown.

Fig. 2.11. Location of lamproitic magmatism in Western Alps, Tuscany and SE Spain. Thick dashed line indicates Alpine suture zone. Full lines indicate fronts of west-immerging subduction zone from Oligo-Miocene to Present. A-B line is the section of Fig. 2.12. Simplified after Doglioni et al. (1997).

A test case to evaluate possible effects of different interfacing approaches has been run over the Torino area. The simulations covered a summer fair weather period, when thimderstorm activity occurred over the western Alps. The AQ model has been driven by two different set of turbulent surface fluxes and scaling parameter. The first set has been estimated using the surface fluxes produced by the MetM RAMS the second - by the SURFPRO interface module employing the van Ulden and Holtslag (1985) formulation for surface fluxes and MOST. 

The AQ forecasting system results have been compared with observations over a 8 month period from June 2006 to January 2007. The predicted concentration data have been divided in two time series obtained selecting the first (last) 24 h of each daily forecast cycle that covers the 48 h period. Comparison of these two time series with observations (Eig. 9.7) showed that the 48 h forecast generally obtains higher concentrations and better fits with observations in comparison to the 24 h forecast. This behaviour was common to all pollutants except ozone (which was overestimated for the 24 h simulation). The comparison of initial and 24 h concentration fields showed that differences were due to the influence of initial conditions on the first simulated day. The resolution difference between CHIMERE (50 km) and FARM (4 km) background domains did not allow obtaining a proper initialization. In CHIMERE topography, the city of Torino is located on the slope of the western Alps, at about 800 m asl. This feature clearly favours ozone overestimation and... 

Pognante U. (1989) Tectonic implications of lawsonite formation in the Sesia zone (western Alps). Tectonophysics 162, 219-227. 

Alps. The Baldissero, Balmuccia, and Finero ultramafic bodies are three well-known examples of orogenic spinel peridotites in the Western Alps. They are exposed in the lowermost part of the... 

Western Alps. The LP orogenic peridotites are particularly well exposed in the Alps (Figure 2), where they form several large occurrences of ultramafic rocks (—100 km or more) along the Alpine and North Apennine mountain arc (Figure 2). In general, the massifs underline the sumre zone between the southern Alpine and European plates. The most significant bodies include ... 

In this respect, the western Alps LP orogenic peridotites vary between two end-members ... 

Figure 3 Location of the main ophiolitic belts and ophiolite complexes mentioned in the text (after Coleman, 1977 Ishiwatari, 1994 Moores et al., 2000). (1) Circum-Pacific Phanerozoic Multiple Ophiolite Belt (450-0 Ma) KM— Klamath Mountains (Trinity and Josephine, western USA) NC—New Caledonia PNG—Papua-New Guinea IB— Indonesian Back-Arc ophiolites. (2) Himalaya-Alps-Caribbean Mesozoic Belt (150-80 Ma) YZ—ophiolites of the Yarlung Zangbo Suture Zone, China OM—Oman (=Semail ophiolite). Sultanate of Oman and Unites Arab Emirates TR—Troodos, Cyprus VO—Vourinos and Pindos, Greece WA—Western Alps (Internal Ligurides and Lanzo) CU—Cuba ophiolites. (3) Appalachian-Caledonian Belt (450 Ma) BOI—Bay of Islands, Newfoundland.

Ophiolites cropping out in the Western Alps of northern Italy are the remnants of the Jurassic Ligurian Tethys (or Western Tethys ). The plagioclase peridotite of Lanzo is considered by... 

Bodinier J.-L. (1988) Geochemistry and petrogenesis of the Lanzo peridotite body, Western Alps. Tectonophysics 149, 67-88. 

Bodinier J.-L., Guiraud M., Dupuy C., and Dostal J. (1986) Geochemistry of basic dykes in the Lanzo Massif (Western Alps) petrogenetic and geodynamic imphcations. Tectonophysics 128, 77-95. 

Coltorti M. and Siena F. (1984) Mantle tectonite and fractionate peridotite at Finero (Italian Western Alps). Neues Jahrbuch fuer Mineralogie. Abhandlungen 419, 244-255. 

Ernst W. G. (1978) Petrochemical study of Iherzolitic rocks from the Western Alps. J. Petrol. 19, 341-392. 

Nicolas A., Him A., Nicolich R., Polino R., Bayer R., Lacassin R., Lanza R., Bois C., Damotte B., Roure F., Cazes M., Ravat J., Vihien A., Dal Piaz G. V., Guellec S., Tardy M., Gosso G., Marthelot J.-M., Mugnier J.-L., Thouvenot F., Scarascia S., Tabacco 1., and Sutter M. (1990) Lithospheric wedging in the Western Alps inferred from the ECORS-CROP traverse. Geology (Boulder) 18, 587-590. 

Scambelluri M., Rampone E., and Piccardo G. B. (2001) Fluid and element cycling in subducted serpentinite a trace-element smdy of the Erro-Tobbio high-pressure ultramafites (Western Alps, NW Italy). J. Petrol. 42, 55-67. 

Sinigoi S., Comin-Chiaramonti P., and Alberti A. A. (1980) Phase relations in the partial melting of the Baldissero spinel-Uierzolite (Ivrea-Verbano Zone, Western Alps, Italy). Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 75, 111-121. 

Philippot P., Chevallier P., Chopin C., and Dubessy J. (1995) Fluid composition and evolution in coesite-bearing rocks (Dora-Maira massif, Western Alps) implications for element recycling during subduction. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 121, 29-44. 

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