Longobucco skarn outcrops, Longobucco, Cosenza Province, Calabria, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Longobucco skarn outcrops	Group of Outcrops
Longobucco	Commune
Cosenza Province	Province
Calabria	Region
Italy	- not defined -

Skarn outcrops in the valley drained by the Ronzi stream.

The main outcrop, about 5 m high and a dozen metres in length, lies just to the east of Croce Reinella pass and is easily identifiable for its rust and white colours (see coordinates). Other two outcrops are located above the shephard's path to the right of Croce Reinella pass at an elevation of 1000 m and 950 m, respectively. These two outcrops are embedded in schists and can be easily identifided only by night thanks to the UV fluorescence of scheelite.

These W-bearing skarns developed in the Bocchigliero sedimentary sequence (which includes sandstones, pelite and rocks of volcanosedimentary origin), near the contact of the Sila batholith, at the expense of three starting materials: pure calcite marble, basic rocks, and weakly calcareous schists.
Zones of wollastonite (retromorphosed into quartz and calcite), hedenbergite, and grossular-vesuvianite are observable in the marble skarn. Fluorite, apatite, quartz, calcite, chlorite, and sulfides formed during subsequent alteration stages. In the two other types of starting materials only relict minerals of the primary stage (pyroxene-garnet) are present and the alteration stages are present but without a great development. A pervasive sericitic alteration is superimposed. In all the cases the main deposition of scheelite is related to the crystallization of the primary silicates.

Vesuvianite is rich in fluorine. In the analyzed samples the fluorine content is usually in the range 2.35-4.37 apfu (Croze, 1989). A sample richer in fluorine (4.98 apfu) is now classifiable as fluorvesuvianite.

References

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