Coastal Chain Research Articles

The development of water management in the southern part of the coastal chain in Syria using remote sensing

The development of water management in the southern part of the coastal chain in Syria using remote sensing

High Preservation Potential Volcaniclastic Sedimentation in the Serravallian Sequence of the Amantea Basin (Coastal Chain, North-Western Calabria)

Evidence of volcaniclastic sedimentation occurs in the first depositional sequence of the sedimentary succession of the Amantea Basin. Volcaniclastic deposits are intercalated in the upper part of a sandstone formation and these show a maximum thickness of about 8 m. The Amantea Basin is a Neogene depozone located along the Tyrrhenian margin of Calabria whose onset started during the Upper Serravallian. The source volcano to these materials had to have been located within or near to the marine basin in order to supply it with significant amounts of pyroclastic fragments emplaced by either pyroclastic fall/or flows during one or more explosive eruptions. The marine environment of volcaniclastic flows made up of pyroclastic fragments mixed with minor siliciclastic and carbonate material. The textural and structural features of the deposits and the composition of the volcanic glass fragments indicate an origin from a sub-aerial coeval explosive eruption, with initial sedimentation in a shallow marine environment, mixing with non-volcanic materials, reworking and final re-sedimentation into the basin. The age of the volcaniclastic/sedimentary sequence makes these deposits a marker for the geodynamic evolution of the area, and the lack of such horizons in the other coeval peri-Tyrrhenian basins allows us to consider the Amantea Basin as a confined elongated coastal basin area, whose tectonostratigraphic architecture denotes a structural partitioning of the eastern nascent Tyrrhenian Basin.

Environmental Estimation of Radiation Equivalent Dose Rates in Soils and Waters of Northern Calabria (Italy)

In this study, the equivalent dose rate of natural radionuclides ( H T ) in 99 spring water and surface soil samples was determined using an alpha, beta, and gamma high sensitivity detector up within a Geiger-Muller tube and with an external probe NaI (Tl). The samples were collected in the Crati basin (southern Italy), and during sample collection, water quality parameters were detected in situ and at the University of Calabria laboratories. A Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was applied to identify and clarify the relationships between water physical-chemical properties and soil and water radioactivity. Results show that the mean H T for spring waters is 97.07 μSv/h. Furthermore, the mean H T for surface soils is 97.92 μSv/h, thus evidencing higher mean H T values than worldwide ones reported in a previous literature. Low correlation coefficients were detected between water H T and conductivity and pH. On the contrary, a reasonable correlation was found between H T in spring water and in soil. This relationship is associated with some rocks of the Sila Massif and of Coastal Chain, i.e., plutonic and metamorphic crystalline rocks. Finally, the estimation of the health risk was calculated: results did not evidence serious dangers for people living in the studied environment. The results from this survey for the H T evaluation provide an extensive assessment of the background exposure levels in the investigated area.

Environmental contamination by naturally occurring asbestos (NOA): Analysis of sentinel animal lung tissue

Ophiolites are known sources of naturally occurring asbestos (NOA). In Calabria (Southern Italy) NOA are mainly concentrated in the ophiolitic sequences cropping in the Mount Reventino area, in the southern part of the Sila massif, and along the Coastal Chain. The most common type of asbestos identified in the rocks of these areas belongs to the tremolite-actinolite series. Another identified asbestiform mineral is fibrous antigorite belonging to the serpentine mineral group with a minor amount of chrysotile. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the diffusion of natural asbestiform fibers from NOA using sentinel animals. Fifteen lung samples of sheep, goats and wild boars from Mount Reventino area and two from an area free from NOA were collected. The lung samples were subjected to anatomopathological examination and lung fiber burden analysis by electron microscopy. Abundant tremolite and few antigorite fibers were detected in the lung samples coming from the NOA area. No corpuscle of asbestos was observed. No fiber was found in the two lung samples of sheet from the area free from NOA. These concentrations of fibers per gram of dry weight of lung tissue (f/gdw) ranged from 104 to 106 f/gdw. The asbestos fibers detected in the lungs of the examined animals reflect the geological features of the areas where they grazed and lived. The anatomopathological analysis showed that 60% of the examined animals had macroscopic lesions affecting their lungs. The presence of tremolite fibers in the lungs confirms the diffusion of mineral fibers in the environment and the real advantage of using animal populations in the study areas.

Preservation of Cultural Identity through Speech Components in the Southern Coastal Java Environment

This research discusses the form of defence of the southern coastal community which is frequently considered strange by most of the Indonesian archipelago community. The analysis began with discussing the linguistic phenomena of the local community, identifying and corroborating the findings as initial capital to determine the analysis method. The findings can be useful for making corrections or structuring social and cultural policies towards indigenous/local wisdom and preserving cultural identity. The research was oriented to the speech lexicon of the Southern coastal communities of Central Java. This research used descriptive qualitative and contextual approaches. The analysis used to describe the speech component was dialect geography and collaborated with an anthropological-linguistic approach to find innovative forms and factors that maintained local identity. As the southern coastal chain of Central Java, bordering with West Java, the nuances of cultural acculturation as a form of cultural pluralism are very visible. Cultural acculturation results in the emergence of language enclaves. The language enclave is formed because the speech community has a speech code that is different from the mother tongue and the nearest language. Language enclaves formed on the southern coast of Central Java occur at the level of internal innovation. Internal innovations in the southern coast language enclave occur in the form of allophones and allomorphs that can be traced based on the articulation process. Social heritage as a form of language preservation in the language enclave of the southern coast of Central Java is formed by the characteristics of simplicity and social intelligence of the people.

Accounting for elevation and distance to the nearest coastline in geostatistical mapping of average annual precipitation

Spatial distribution of precipitation in mountainous areas suggests strong control of surface orography on precipitation processes. Generally, quantifying orographic control of precipitation and identifying homogeneous areas are difficult because of the complex combination of factors, which could influence the precipitation process. The objective of this study was to account for morphometric attributes (elevations and distances to the nearest coastline) in geostatistical mapping of average annual precipitation in southern Italy. The study area was the Calabria Region, which has a spatially variable Mediterranean climate because of its high orographic variability. In this study, annual precipitation data collected by the former Italian Hydrographic Service for the 1916–2006 period were used. Elevations and distances to the nearest coastline were derived from a digital elevation model with 250 m × 250 m cell size in a geographic information system environment and used to delineate areas with homogeneous morphological features [landscape units (LU)]. The effectiveness of LU was assessed estimating the expected value of the average annual precipitation with polygon kriging and comparing their differences with the Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon test. The average annual precipitation map showed that mountains areas receive more precipitation than low elevation areas and, in the Tyrrhenian side, it was also evident the orographic influence of Coastal chain on precipitation with high precipitation values. Results can help in understanding the differences among LU and the influence of surface orography on spatial patterns of annual precipitation in mountainous regions.

Asbestiform minerals in ophiolitic rocks of Calabria (southern Italy)

ABSTRACTOphiolitic rocks cropping on Calabria territory, southern Italy, can hold asbestiform minerals potentially harmful for human health. The aim of this work was to detect the fibrous phases of ophiolites along the Coastal Chain of northern Calabria and southern part of the Sila massif. Above 220 massive samples were collected in the study areas and analyzed using optical and electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, and Fourier transform infra-red spectrometry. The main fibrous constituent belonged to tremolite-actinolite series followed by fibrous antigorite that becomes more abundant in the samples collected in Reventino Mount surroundings. Results highlighted that serpentinites samples mainly consisted of antigorite and minor chrysotile. Samples collected along the coastal chain of northern Calabria did not hold fibrous materials. The results will be useful for Italian natural occurrences of asbestos (NOA) mapping in order to avoid an unintentional exposition by human activity or weathering processes.

Biomass conversion and expansion factors in Douglas-fir stands of different planting density: variation according to individual growth and prediction equations

Aim of study: We built biomass expansion factors (BCEFs) from Douglas-fir felled trees planted with different planting densities to evaluate the differences according tree size and planting density.Area of study: The Douglas-fir plantation under study is located on the northern coastal chain of Calabria (Tyrrhenian side) south Italy.Materials and methods: We derived tree level BCEFs, relative to crown (BCEFc), to stem (BCEFst = basic density, BD) and total above-ground (BCEFt) from destructive measurements carried out in a Douglas-fir plantation where four study plots were selected according to different planting densities (from 833 to 2500 trees per hectare). The measured BCEFs were regressed against diameter at breast height and total height, planting density, site productivity (SP) and their interactions to test the variation of BCEFs. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the post hoc Tukey comparison test were used to test differences in BCEFt, BCEFc and in BD between plots with different planting density.Main results: BCEFs decreased with increasing total height and DBH, but large dispersion measures were obtained for any of the compartments in the analysis. An increasing trend with planting density was found for all the analyzed BCEFs, but together with planting density, BCEFs also resulted dependent upon site productivity. BCEFt average values ranged between 1.40 Mg m-3 in planting density with 833 trees/ha (PD833) to 2.09 Mg m-3 in planting density with 2500 trees/ha (PD2500), which are in the range of IPCC prescribed values for Douglas-fir trees.Research highlights: Our results showed that the application of BCEF to estimate forest biomass in stands with different planting densities should explicitly account for the effect of planting density and site productivity.

High-resolution aeromagnetic survey of Calabria (Southern Italy)

ABSTRACTWe present a 1:350,000 high-resolution magnetic anomaly map of Calabria (Southern Italy), obtained by merging the results from two low-altitude aeromagnetic surveys performed in southern and northern Calabria. Magnetic anomalies of Calabria are of low intensity, and mostly range from 11 to –9 nT. Northern Calabria is characterized by positive anomalies in the Tyrrhenian margin (Coastal Chain) that turn into negative values moving eastward in the Sila Massif. Southern Calabria is characterized by slightly positive anomaly values, interrupted by a null magnetic anomaly corridor roughly corresponding to the eastern margin of the Gioia Tauro basin. Finally, anomaly values turn systematically negative in the Messina Straits. Due to the unprecedented resolution (low flying height, spatial sampling along the flight line of ∼5 m and 1–2 km flight line spacing), the new map highlights, in detail, the geometry and setting of the upper crustal features. As Calabria is one of the most seismically active regions in Italy, hit by several high-magnitude earthquakes in recent centuries, the interpretation of this new map will hopefully contribute to new insights into the crustal geological setting, location and dimension of the main seismogenic sources.

The Small Spring Method (SSM) for the definition of stable isotope–elevation relationships in Northern Calabria (Southern Italy)

A total of 141 samples mostly located in the Coastal Chain and the Sila Massif of Northern Calabria have been collected from 125 different springs and analyzed chemically and for the isotopic ratios 2H/1H and 18O/16O of water, with the ultimate aim to investigate isotope–elevation relationships for local meteoric waters. The Small Springs Method (SSM) has been adopted for this purpose. The hydrogeological characteristics of the watersheds of interest indicate that the sampled springs are discharged from water circuits hosted in alluvial and colluvial deposits rather than in the underlying rock substrata. The chemical characteristics of the sampled waters suggest that they are immature and related to shallow and short water circuits, in spite of the variable degree of chemical evolution. The spring waters of relatively high Total Ionic Salinity (TIS >12.5 meq/L) and those from watersheds of comparatively large elevation range (>650 m) and relatively large areas (>17 km2) have been excluded from the analysis of elevation–isotope relationships. An oxygen isotope lapse rate of −0.194 ‰/100 m has been found for the spring water samples of Northern Calabria as a whole, whereas the obtained hydrogen isotope lapse rates are −1.23 ‰/100 m for the Coastal Chain and −1.45 ‰/100 m for the Sila Massif based on measured isotope values and optimized elevation. The following O-isotopes equation is recommended to estimate the average elevation (Hi in m) of the recharge areas of Northern Calabria aquifer systems:δO18=−0.00194·Hi−5.91 (1)The maximum estimated uncertainty due to variations in the δ18O value over time is 202 m. Use of H isotopes is not recommended for constraining average recharge elevations due to important local variations, reflecting in different relations for the Coastal Chain and the Sila Massif. Assuming that Equation (1) holds true throughout Northern Calabria, an iso-distribution map of the δ18O value in rainfall has been drawn for this area.

Palynological age constraint of Les Vilelles unit, Catalan Coastal Chain, Spain.

Les Vilelles unit is a detrital sequence exposed at the southwestern margin of the Catalan Coastal Chain (CCC), NE Spain, below the Carboniferous turbiditic series. Based on the palynological content, the age of this unit was initially assigned to the Middle-Late Devonian (Eifelian to Famennian). Additional radiolarian and conodont findings were considered to be Early–Middle Mississippian (Tournaisian to early Visean). To clarify this age discrepancy a new and more comprehensive palynostratigraphic analysis has been conducted in the upper part of the section representative of Les Vilelles unit. This has provided an assemblage of miospores, acritarchs, prasinophyta phycomata and chitinozoans that can be confidently assigned to a latest Frasnian interval, in contact with the Frasnian–Famennian boundary. Therefore, the present analysis refines the Middle–Late Devonian age formerly assigned, establishes a latest Frasnian age for the top of the unit, and provides new insights to the better understanding of the unconformity and hiatus separating the pre-Carboniferous and Carboniferous CCC series in the Priorat Massif. The study also includes a systematic section with the description of three newly established miospore species: Dibolisporites coniugatum , Dibolisporites prioratum and Rugospora spinosa .

An operational forecasting system for the meteorological and marine conditions in Mediterranean regional and coastal areas

Abstract. The coupling of a suite of meteorological limited area models with a wave prediction system based on the nesting of different wave models provides for medium-range sea state forecasts at the Mediterranean, regional and coastal scale. The new system has been operational at ISPRA since September 2012, after the upgrade of both the meteorological BOLAM model and large-scale marine components of the original SIMM forecasting system and the implementation of the new regional and coastal (WAM-SWAN coupling) chain of models. The coastal system is composed of nine regional-scale high-resolution grids, covering all Italian seas and six coastal grids at very high resolution, capable of accounting for the effects of the interaction between the incoming waves and the bathymetry. A preliminary analysis of the performance of the system is discussed here focusing on the ability of the system to simulate the mean features of the wave climate at the regional and sub-regional scale. The results refer to two different verification studies. The first is the comparison of the directional distribution of almost one year of wave forecasts against the known wave climate in northwestern Sardinia and central Adriatic Sea. The second is a sensitivity test on the effect on wave forecasts of the spatial resolution of the wind forcing, being the comparison between wave forecast and buoy data at two locations in the northern Adriatic and Ligurian Sea during several storm episodes in the period autumn 2012–winter 2013.

Chemical and isotopic characteristics of the warm and cold waters of the Luigiane Spa near Guardia Piemontese (Calabria, Italy) in a complex faulted geological framework

Waters discharging at the Luigiane Spa come from two different hydrogeological circuits, which are chiefly hosted in the carbonate rocks and Upper Triassic evaporites of two distinct geological units, known as Verbicaro Unit and Cetraro Unit. The first unit contains a cold and relatively shallow aquifer behaving as a sort of piston-flow circuit with high flow rate, whereas the second unit encloses a warm and comparatively deep aquifer acting as a sort of well-mixed reservoir, where the circulation is slower and the rate is lower.Meteoric waters infiltrating along the Coastal Chain at similar elevations (615–670m asl on average, in spite of considerable uncertainties) recharge both aquifers and, in the first case, acquire heat from rocks through conductive transfer as a consequence of deepening along a fault system and/or crossing between different systems, as suggested by local structural geology. In particular, the warm deeper reservoir has a temperature of ∼60°C, as indicated by the chalcedony solubility and the Ca–Mg and SO4–F geothermometers, which were specifically calibrated for the peculiar water–rock-interaction (WRI) processes originating the Na–Cl–SO4 high-salinity warm waters that discharge at the Luigiane Spa. The warm deeper reservoir is probably located at depths close to 1.4km, assuming a geothermal gradient of 33°Ckm−1. The water leaving the deep reservoir discharges at the surface at 40.9±3.3°C after a relatively fast upflow and limited cooling. The upward part of both hydrogeological circuits is controlled by local low- and high-angle fault systems as well as by the tectonic window of Guardia Piemontese, where the Verbicaro Unit crops out and the Cetraro Unit approaches the surface.The reconstruction of this conceptual model has been made possible thanks to the adoption of a “local” approach integrating previously existing and new geological, hydrogeological and geochemical data and including the use of sulfur isotope data. This last technique has proven most important, as it enabled us to recognize the Upper Triassic fingerprint of dissolved sulfate, once the effects of bacterial sulfate reduction had been properly taken into account.

Miocene thrusting in the eastern Sila Massif: Implication for the evolution of the Calabria-Peloritani orogenic wedge (southern Italy)

Alpine orogens in the central Mediterranean region have revealed the concomitance of crustal extension in back-arc domain and crustal shortening in frontal domain. Quantitative data of deformation in the frontal orogenic wedges are necessary to understand how the shortening-extension pair evolves in terms of structures, orogenic transport, timing, and exhumation rate. This paper deals with kinematics and ages of the frontal thrust systems of the Calabria-Peloritani Arc (Italy) exposed in the eastern Sila Massif. We first present structural fieldwork, onshore and offshore well log data, and new apatite fission-track (AFT) thermochronology. Then, we describe the structural architecture of the studied area as an ENE-verging stacking of thrust sheets involving basement units and syn-orogenic sediments. The AFT study documents that thrust sheets entered the partial annealing zone from 18Ma to 13Ma. This Early-Middle Miocene thrusting phase was coeval with exhumation of high-pressure/low temperature metamorphic rocks in the hinterland of the orogen (Coastal Chain area), mainly driven by top-to-the-W extensional tectonics. Opposite kinematic shear senses (contractional top-to-the-E and extensional top-to-the-W) and different exhumation rates (slow in the frontal, more rapid in the hinterland) are framed in a tectonic scenario of a critically tapered orogenic wedge during the eastward retreating of the Apennine slab.

Weathering in the crystalline rocks of Calabria, Italy, and relationships to landslides

Abstract This paper reviews approximately 40 years of studies focused on landslides in weathered crystalline rocks of Calabria, southern Italy. In these studies geological, geomorphological, mineralogical, petrographical, engineering-geological and geotechnical aspects of the Palaeozoic granitoids and the high-grade metamorphic rocks cropping out in the Calabrian massifs have been considered. This in turn has allowed depiction of the regional landsliding scenario, where almost all the main typologies of mass movements have been recognized, ranging from shallow soil slips and extremely rapid debris flows to slow-moving deep-seated gravitational slope deformations. From north to south, the Sila Massif, Coastal Chain, and Poro, Serre and Aspromonte Massifs are described, with reference to the studies dealing with weathering and slope movements in the different geological and morphological settings. The regional extent of the weathering processes gave researchers the opportunity to adopt and calibrate mapping methods, specifically devoted to analysis and mitigation of the landslide hazard in weathered materials, which have also been applied to important civil engineering works. A further distinctive character of the Calabrian weathering is its age, which has been ascribed to Tertiary time. Such an ancient initiation could be regarded as one of the main reasons for the depth of the weathered mantle, which, despite the rugged topography, in some districts exceeds 150–200 m.

Results 3 decades after the plantation trials with palebark pine in the mountain of the coastal chain in Calabria

Results 3 decades after the plantation trials with palebark pine in the mountain of the coastal chain in Calabria

On a new subspecies of Adoxa moschatellina (Adoxaceae), apoendemic in Calabria (S Italy)

Adoxa moschatellina subsp. cescae subsp. nova is proposed. Phytogeographical, karyological and morphological evidences are presented. This subspecies appear to be endemic to the Coastal Chain, Calabria (S Italy) and shows a triploid (2n = 54) chromosome complement, different from the diploid (2n = 36) one of A. moschatellina s.s. By a morphological point of view, pollen and stomata size of the latter (from the whole Italy, including the Pollino Massif, N Calabria) appear to be smaller in average than those of the new subspecies, which can be considered as a new apoendemic taxon, because of its distribution and high ploidy level.

Poleward progressing quasiperiodic disturbances at cusp latitudes: The role of wave processes

Observations from various magnetometer networks, including Magnetomer Array for Cusp and Cleft Studies (MACCS), Canadian Auroral Network for the OPEN Program Unified Study (CANOPUS), the Greenland Coastal Chain, and the U.S./Russia Antarctic Array, made on January 5, 1995, show an event of very long period pulsations (30‐ to 40‐min period) in the cusp region. Pulsations were driven by quasiperiodic Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) By variations which were observed by the Wind spacecraft. Disturbances of this type are commonly interpreted as poleward moving, east–west oriented ionospheric currents (e.g., intensification of the DPY current system), stimulated by reconnection processes at the dayside magnetopause. However, the temporal/spatial, ground‐based structure of such disturbances can better be described if this picture is augmented by the inclusion of transient wave processes, for example, distortions of the Alfven phase front, transmitting a disturbance from an assumed reconnection region to the ionosphere. In general, this type of disturbance, which we suggest calling PDPY6 pulsations, is shown to be a manifestation of the modulation of the high‐latitude ionosphere electrodynamics by a large‐scale Alfven wave in the solar wind under favorable IMF orientation.

Ophiolites of the Calabrian Peloritan Arc and their relationships with the crystalline basement (Catena Costiera and Sila Piccola, Calabria, Southern Italy) GLOM 2000 Excursion Guide-Book

In the Catena Costiera (Coastal Chain) and the Sila Piccola (northern sector of the Calabrian Peloritan Arc), Southern Italy, remnants of continental and oceanic lithosphere still preserve the records of a geodynamic history developed throughout the Mesozoic rifting and Jurassic oceanic opening stages followed by the Cretaceous-Tertiary convergence phase, mainly consisting of subduction- and continental collision- related events. The main aims of the present Guide- Book is to illustrate the main features of the oceanic and continental rocks involved in the related magmatic and tectonometamorphic processes.

PERIDOTITES, PYROXENITES AND GABBROS ASSOCIATION WITHIN HIGH-GRADE CRYSTALLINE BASEMENT ROCKS FROM THE CALABRIAN THYRRENIAN COASTAL CHAIN, CALABRIAN ARC, SOUTHERN ITALY

Small peridotite and gabbro bodies outcrop within medium- high grade, Grt- and Sil-bearing granulitic and migmatitic rocks of the Calabrian Thyrrenian Coastal Chain, northern sector of the Calabrian-Peloritan Arc, southern Italy. These bodies generally have sharp contacts with the country rocks. The peridotites, which sometimes include folded, transposed and boudinated pyroxenite veins and/or gabbroic dykes, are heavily serpentinized, although small, less serpentinized portions are locally preserved. These fresher portions show porphyroclastic microstructure, with olivine (Fo 90-93), orthopyroxene (En 89-91; Al2O3 = 1.1 - 2.9 wt%), brown spinel (Cr/(Cr+Al) 0.07-0.75), very rare clinopyroxene (Ca/(Ca+Mg) = 0.51-0.52; Al2O3 = 2.36-3.22 wt%), amphibole (Mg-hornblende - pargasite), chlorite, antigorite, lizardite 1T and magnetite. The pyroxenite veins are represented by abundant orthopyroxenites, Amph-pyroxenites and scarce Spl-websterites. The orthopyroxenites have porphyroclastic to granoblastic polygonal microstructures, with porphyroclasts of orthopyroxene (En 88-89; Al2O3 = 3.06-3.92 wt%), olivine (Fo 90) and hercynitic spinel set up in a well-recrystallized, polygonal matrix of orthopyroxene (En 88; Al2O3 = 3.5 wt%), olivine (Fo 90), amphibole (Mg - hornblende), serpentine, chlorite and diaspore. The Amph-pyroxenites show porphyroclastic texture with large porphyroclasts of amphibole (Mg-hornblende) and clinopyroxene (Ca/(Ca+Mg) = 0.49-0.51; Al2O3 = 1.9- 2.1 wt%) set up in a well-recrystallized matrix of amphibole (pargasite to Mg-hornblende), clinopyroxene (Ca/(Ca+Mg) 0.58; Al2O3 = 1.94-2.1 wt%), orthopyroxene (En 86-87; Al2O3 = 2.75-3.05 wt%), hercynitic spinel (Cr/(Cr+Al) = 0.09-0.13) and magnetite. The Spl-websterites have a porphyroclastic microstructure, with clinopyroxene (Ca/(Ca+Mg) 0.48; Al2O3 = 0.6 wt%), orthopyroxene (En 89; Al2O3 = 0.6 wt%) and brown spinel (Cr/(Cr+Al) 0.54). The serpentinized peridotites have MgO/FeOt values ranging from 5.1 to 7.6, which coupled with their Ni-Co-Sc patterns suggest a residual character. The REE patterns, in spite of some zig-zag behaviour of L - and MREE, possibly due to the serpentinization process, are also indicative of a depleted character (CeN/YbN = 0.03-0.65). The metagabbros show a tholeiitic fractionation trend. Incompatible elements spider diagrams normalized against MORB show more or less flat patterns around 1, except for a conspicuous negative Th anomaly. The REE normalized patterns show either a positive slope from La to Eu followed by a more or less flat trend at about 10 x Ch, or almost flat trend at around 10 x Ch. Some samples show slight, positive Eu anomaly. The LaN/YbN ratios range from 0.07 to 2.39. Their geochemical signature would be consistent with an underplating magmatism. The REE abundances of the pyroxenites, as well as their Ni-Co-Sc patterns, suggest a derivation from reacting melts and/or fluids. Temperatures of equilibration of about 800°C and 750°C have been calculated for the peridotites - pyroxenites and metagabbros, respectively. These data fit quite well the inferred physical conditions (750-800°C and about 0.9 - 1.1 GPa) for the metamorphic climax of the granulitic country rocks (Piluso et al., 1998). Preliminary barometric data are also consistent with these estimates. From the above considerations and in the light of the evolution model proposed for the northern sector of the Calabrian Arc by Piluso and Morten (1999), we suggest that: i) astenophere upwelling, responsible for the thermal anomaly, melting, and granulitic metamorphism in the crustal rocks, produced lithosphere thinning (after Variscan orogenic collapse) and underplating gabbroic magmatism in the northern sector of the Calabrian Arc; ii) rising melts/fluids formed pyroxenitic and gabbroic dykes in the underlying mantle peridotites, which were coupled with the crustal rocks before or during the migmatitic-granulitic event dated at 295 Ma (Shenk, 1989); iii) the peridotitespyroxenites- gabbros and the crustal rocks subsequently shared in a common exhumation history through HT and LT detachment shear zones (Piluso and Morten, 1999), under high amphibolite, amphibolite and greenschists facies conditions.