The structural evolution of the Asinara island (NW Sardinia, Italy)

The metamorphic basement of the Asinara island represents a key area of the Sardinia Variscan segment, because it displays an almost complete cross-section through the inner part of the Sardinia Variscan belt, where different tectono-metamorphic complexes have been juxtaposed along narrow belts of high-strain concentration. Detailed field mapping coupled with preliminary studies on the structural and metamorphic features of this small island, allow to draw a better picture of the structural frame issued from the Variscan collision in the inner zone of the belt. Three deformation phases related to crustal thickening in a compressive and transpressive, partitioned tectonic regime, followed by a later phase of extensional deformation have been recognised. In spite of a general HT/LP metamorphic overprint, linked to the post-collisional deformation phases, a relic Barrovian zoneography is still detectable. The Barrovian assemblages are pre- to syn-kinematic with respect to the D2 deformation phase, and pre-date the third, contractional tectonic event. The HT/LP assemblage indicates a static growth of weakly deformed by the last deformation events. The complex geometry of the fabric associated to the D2 and D3 deformation events suggests an heterogenous deformation history with a monoclinic geometry characterized by switching of the stretching lineation orientation and a contrasting sense of displacement, probably controlled by a northward partitioned pure shear. (C) 2004 Lavoisier SAS. All rights reserved.