New Sm–Nd ages for the Ivrea–Verbano Zone, Sesia and Sessera valleys (Northern-Italy)

Abstract

The Ivrea–Verbano Zone (IVZ) is a slice of South-Alpine lower crust intruded by mantle magma. The main episode of magmatic underplating occurred during the Permian time and was related to continental rifting. We have carried out mineral Sm–Nd isochron dating of samples from the IVZ, including a gabbro dyke on which apparent Oligocene zircon ages have been reported, and a metapelite. The gabbro dyke sampled yielded three isochrons (cpx, opx, plag, amph and whole rocks) with the same initial 143Nd / 144Nd and an age of 274 ± 11 Ma (95% c.l., MSWD = 1.31) for the last major thermal event. Since this dyke is an embayment of the surrounding layered gabbro in the Balmuccia Peridotite, this age also represents the minimum age for the cooling of mafic–ultramafic sequence and for the emplacement of the Balmuccia peridotite in the IVZ. These conclusions are in contrast with those of Gebauer et al. (1992), who reported Oligocene U–Pb ages for magmatic zircons extracted from the same rocks. In order to evaluate the effect of Alpine intrusions on the IVZ, a sample of amphibole gabbro from the upper Sessera Valley was collected near Oligocene magmatic rocks. An internal Sm–Nd isochron (amph + cpx + plag + wr) from this sample yielded an age of 267 ± 21 Ma (95% c.l., MSWD = 0.716). Thus, despite the vicinity of the Oligocene magmatic activity, no thermal overprint (at T>650°C) occurred in this part of the IVZ more recently than 267 ± 21 Ma. Furthermore, a paragneiss septum within a shallower part of the intrusion in the lower Sessera Valley yielded a middle Triassic Sm–Nd garnet, biotite, plagioclase and whole rock age of 244 ± 4 Ma (95% c.l).