Petrologia

The group focuses its research mostly on petrologic processes acting from deep mantle to the lower crust at both extensional and convergent plate margins by combining the results provided by experimental techniques and field-based studies. Thanks to the facilities at our Experimental Petrology Laboratory we are able to investigate a wide range of pressure and temperature that allows us to simulate and unravel several processes, such as subsolidus phase relations, fluid/melt-rock reactions and partial melting. These processes drive the elemental exchange and recycling, tectonics, mantle melting, and volcanism, which have a key role in the dynamics of the Earth’s mantle and crust.
We are also contributing to the geological mapping of the Alps in the frame of the ISPRA-CARG project (new geologic map of Italy on a scale of 1:50.000, http://www.apat.gov.it)

• Petrological and tectonic evolution of the lithosphere in extensional settings.
• The role of melting and melt-rock reaction processes in the mineralogical and chemical modification of the upper mantle.
• Dissolution processes in COH fluids and volatile cycling at subduction zones.
• Phase relations in mafic, ultramafic and sedimentary systems at high pressure and temperatures.
• Petrological modeling of high-pressure terrains in Central and Eastern Alps

• Borghini G., Fumagalli P., Rampone E. (2017). Partial melting experiments on a natural pyroxenite at 1 and 1.5 GPa: insights on the role of secondary pyroxenites in basalts generation. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 172:70, DOI 10.1007/s00410-017-1387-4, ISSN: 0010-7999.
• Fumagalli P., Borghini G., Rampone E., Poli S. (2017) Experimental calibration of Forsterite–Anorthite–Ca-Tschermak (FACE) geobarometer for mantle peridotites. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 172(6):38
• Tumiati S., Tiraboschi C., Miozzi F., Vitale-Brovarone A., Manning C. E., Sverjensky D. A., Milani S., Poli S. (2020) Dissolution susceptibility of glass-like carbon versus crystalline graphite in high-pressure aqueous fluids and implications for the behavior of organic matter in subduction zones. GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA, 273: 383-402.