The aim of this course (offered to Master students of IPGP) is to understand deep deformation processes in the heart of a mountain belt across space and time scales. The Western Alps corresponds to a former subduction zone which has been exhumed during Alpine orogeny. The goal of this 5-day trip is to identify the various tectonic events and their petrological/mineralogical records studying metamorphic rocks ranging from greenschist to eclogite-facies conditions, in the Aosta valley (NW Italy).
The students will be trained to: (i) identify the (beautiful) mineral parageneses representative of each metamorphic grade and each lithology;// (ii) draw panoramas and understand the stacking of tectonic nappes in the internal zones of the Alps; (iii) reconstruct a chronology of events that affected the belt from the early Mesozoic up the mid-Cenozoic times.
Highly motivated students with good geological background (and basic knowledge in petrology) are welcome.
Additonal information: Get ready for hiking: there will be several day excursions requiring good physical conditions (~500 m denivelate). Please send a motivation letter and a short CV to angiboust@ipgp.fr if you want to participate. Candidatures will be carefully evaluated. Cost (for non-IPGP or non-ENS students) will be around 600 euros (all included from Paris and back).
