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In the southern Dora-Maira Massif, Western Alps, slivers of continental crust with similar lithologies, but recrystallized during the Alpine orogeny at different peak-P conditions, are exposed. They include the Brossasco-Isasca Unit (BIU) where coesite was first discovered in continental crust. A new 1:20,000-scale geologic map and related cross-sections of the whole BIU and adjoining units is presented, in which the most significant features useful to infer the pre-Alpine history and the Alpine tectonic and metamorphic evolution, are summarized. Thanks to detailed petrography and petrology, the geologic map shows the precise location of ultra-high pressure (UHP) minerals (such as coesite), and the locations of the most significant mineral assemblages (such as kyanite + jadeite). This innovative approach is used to distinguish the BIU from the adjacent units. Relict pre-Alpine structures (such as igneous intrusive contacts with basement xenoliths and metagranitoids) are summarized in a sketch illustrating...

A well-preserved phengite-amphibole eclogite (Br2F) from the UHP Brossasco-Isasca Unit (BIU) of the Dora-Maira Massif was studied in detail. The eclogite consists of the peak assemblage omphacite, garnet, phengite, rutile, and quartz. A porphyroblastic blue-green amphibole statically overgrows the eclogitic foliation defined by the preferred orientation of phengite flakes, and by the alignments of abundant accessory rutile grains. Both omphacite and phengite are partially replaced by fine-grained symplectites, consisting of clinopyroxene + albite and biotite + oligoclase, respectively. The metamorphic evolution of eclogite Br2F was reconstructed combining microstructural observations, conventional thermobarometry, and pseudosection analysis. A first pseudosection was calculated in the NKCFMASH system in the pressure range 5-45 kbar to model the peak and early retrogressive conditions, whereas a second pseudosection, calculated in the NCFMASH system, was used to model the albite + clinopyroxene symplectite...