Tectono-metamorphic evolution of middle crustal metapelites from the greenschist fascies basement of the Peloritani Mountains (North-eastern Sicily)

Palinspastic reconstruction of the past geodynamic realms is one of the most challenged aims of the Earth scientist. The development of the multidisciplinary investigation techniques is increasingly allowing elaboration of detailed and reliable models, in particular for those geological scenarios characterized by superposition of different orogenic cycles involving microplate frameworks, such as the Mediterranean realm. In this view, geothermo-barometry via PT pseudosection assisted by image processing of X-Ray Map has been performed to better constrain the PT history of a remnant of the southern European Variscan chain, now incorporated in the southernmost termination (i.e. Peloritani Mountains) of the Calabria-Peloritani Orogen (CPO) (Fig.1a). The present-day nappe-like edifice of the Peloritani Mountains is characterized by an overturned framework where the higher grade metamorphic units occupy the uppermost levels of the nappe-edifice and where each unit is characterized by an average increment of the metamorphic grade from bottom to the upper present-day levels. In this contribution we reconstruct the PT history of the medium-grade metapelites from the intermediately stacked Mandanici Unit, thanks to the information preserved in garnet micaschists outcropping in three different areas (Savoca, Montagna di Vernà, Briga) and representative of the highest metamorphic grade levels of the Unit (Fig.1a).