CHLORITE/SMECTITE - ALKALI FELDSPAR METASOMATIC XENOLITHS FROM HYBLEAN MIOCENIC DIATREMES (SICILY, ITALY): EVIDENCE FOR EARLY INTERACTION BETWEEN HYDROTHERMAL BRINES AND ULTRAMAFIC/MAFIC ROCKS AT CRUSTAL LEVELS

Upper-Miocene tuff-breccia pipes from the Hyblean area (south-eastern Sicily) bear a number of ultramafic and mafic xenoliths (spinel-peridotites, pyroxenites, gabbroic rocks) whose study has led to conclude that the Meso-Caenozoic carbonatic and volcanic succession stands upon a fossil oceanic core-complex, probably connected with the adjacent Ionian crust. Evidence for hydrothermal metasomatism is common in the Hyblean ultramafic and mafic xenoliths. In some cases, extreme metasomatic transformation and shearing have deleted original mineralogy and textures yielding unusual rocks, hereafter called “metasomatites”. These rocks generally exhibit cataclastic texture, their hydrothermal miner…