Albera Massif, Europei

Regional Level Types
Albera Massif	Massif
Europe	Continent

Mountain range between Spain and France, between the Emporda and Roussillon plains at the eastern side of the Pyrenees.

The schisto-crystalline Albères massif constitutes the eastern and Mediterranean end of the Pyrenees. By steep slopes it rises above the Roussillon plain towards the ridge marking the Spanish border, culminating at Neoulos peak (1256 m).
To the east the massif ends with the rocky cliffs of the Vermeille coast (Collioure, Port-Vendres, Banyuls-sur-Mer and Cerbère).

The western part of the massif consists essentially of crystallophyllian rocks, where we distinguish:
- Granitised gneisses and micaschists which form the Albères central core. The nature of the "granitized" zones varies from quartzite diorite to muscovite/biotite granite.
- At the edge, in a concentric pattern, extend the areas of progressive metamorphism where the following patterns can be individualized: biotite micaschists, andalusite micaschists and sillimanite/muscovite micaschists.
- The few calcareous intercalations are transformed into marmorean limestone.

The eastern part of the Albères is formed by metamorphic schists partially related to the Cambrian, with many quartz veins.
A pegmatite field in andalusite and cordierite schists around leucogranites is found mainly in the towns of Collioure (Cotlliure) and Argeles-sur-Mer (Argelers de la Marenda).

As a matter of fact, the heart of the Albères massif presents with an exceptional perianatectic lode field, one of the most outstanding of France. It consists in many irregular structures of leucogranites ranging from the andalusite-cordierite zone to the migmatites one. This field arises as several hundred lenticular lodes of pegmatites, the largest being situated between the Massane Tower and the Coll del Pal. One meets all the textural interfaces between aplites, granites, and pegmatites.
The Albères massif pegmatite field shows four main petrographic patterns distributed in four concentric zones around the anatectic granites (Mallo and al., 1995):
- Type 1: Non-mineralized pegmatites characterized by a core of quartz and microcline in graphic association. They are the most frequent, but most are small (centimetric thickness / plurimetric extension). They are placed in an inside position in the muscovite/biotite leucogranites and in contact with schists of the sillimanite/K-feldspar zone.
- Type 2: Intermediate pegmatites similar with type 1 but containing Li-Fe-Mn phosphates, chrysoberyl and rare Nb-Ta-U oxides. Their dimension is also larger, reaching 200 m in length. They spread around the leucogranites in the sillimanite/K-feldspar zone and in the sillimanite/andalusite one.
- Type 3: Pegmatites close to the previous ones but containing, besides Li-Fe-Mn phosphates and beryl, larger amounts of Nb-Ta-U oxides. They stand out with a well-developed quartz core and a clear albitization. Their extension varies from a few meters to 300 m. They are met in the andalusite zone.
- Type 4: Muscovite/quartz/albite pegmatites richly mineralized in Be, Nb-Ta and Rare Earth. They are characterized by the albite and quartz intergrowth, the frequency of quartz/muscovite veins, the absence of K feldspar and the presence of graphite. They are rather small (centimetric thickness and metric extension) and are situated on the pegmatite field outskirts.
(Calvet M. and al., 2015).

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas that Intersect

References