^aDipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pavia, Via Ferrata, 1, I-27100 Pavia, Italy

In completely eclogitized coronitic samples, paragonite, blue amphibole, garnet, epidote, fine grained jadeite and chloritoid occur in plagioclase microdomains (former igneous plagioclase). The mafic mineral microdomains consist of glaucophane and garnet. Complexly-zoned amphiboles constrain changing metamorphic conditions: cores of pre-Alpine brown hornblende and/or tremolite are preserved inside rims of a sodic–calcic amphibole that are in turn surrounded by a sodic amphibole. The main high-pressure mineral assemblage, as seen in mylonites, involves glaucophane, chloritoid, epidote, garnet ± phengite, ± paragonite. Some layers within the gabbro contain garnet, omphacite, ± glaucophane, and acid dykes crosscutting the gabbro body contain jadeite, quartz, garnet, epidote and paragonite.

The presence of chloritoid-bearing high-pressure assemblages reflects hydration of the gabbros during their pre-Alpine exhumation prior to subduction, as well as the composition of the microdomains operating during subduction. The pressure and temperature conditions of gabbro transformation during subduction are inferred to be 450–550 °C at up to 2 GPa on the basis of the chloritoid-bearing assemblages. The factors controlling the reaction pathway to form chloritoid-bearing high-pressure assemblages in mafic rocks are inferred from these observations.