Batolite dell'Adamello

Representation and status

Historical Variants: Adamellogranit (Studer 1872), Adamellogruppe (Salomon 1908), masse intrusive tonalitique de l'Adamello (Henny 1918), Adamello-Pluton = Adamellogruppe (Exner 1961), batolite dell'Adamello = plutoniti dell'Adamello (Dal Piaz et al. 1992a), Adamello Batholith = Adamello batholith (Brack 1981, Spillmann 1993, Callegari & Brack 2002), Tonale-Adamello Pluton (Wenk 1982), Adamello batholith (Broderick et al. 2015), Adamello Batholith = Adamello-Batholith = Batholite de l'Adamello (TK500 / Gouffon et al. 2024), Adamello-Intrusion

Description: «Tertiäre», synorogene Intrusion südlich der Insubrische Linie: ältere Dioritstöcke (mit Pyroxen-Hornblende-Gabbro und Hornblendit längs des westlichen, südlichen und östlichen Plutonrandes), Tonalitstöcke und jüngere Granodiorit- bis Granitstöcke. Enthält metamorph umgewandelten Schollen der umrahmenden Gesteinen (Esino-Kalk und -Dolomit).

Subordinate units

Age at top

Age at base

Definition: Gouffon Yves (Editor) (2024) : Tectonic Map of Switzerland 1:500000, Explanatory notes. Federal Office of Topography swisstopo, Wabern

p.119: The Adamello Batholith represents the largest Paleogene pluton of the Alps. It is located in the South Alpine domain, adjacent to the Tonale Fault in the north and the Giudicarie Fault in the east. It comprises several intrusions that succeeded each other between 42 and 28 Ma, generally becoming younger in age from south to north. The rocks of this batholith are mainly tonalites accompanied by granodiorites (Callegari & Brack 2002).
In contrast to the Bregaglia Intrusion and most other Periadriatic plutons, ascent and main emplacement of the different batches of the Adamello Batholith were unrelated to the activity of the neighboring Periadriatic Fault System and occurred by forceful intrusion. The youngest intrusions however, located in the north of the batholith and adjacent to the Tonale Fault (the foliated Avio and Presanella intrusions with ages of 34.6 Ma and 32.0 Ma, respectively), produced a contact metamorphism during which the adjacent mylonites of the Tonale Fault (Southern Mylonite Zone) became deformed under temperatures of up to more than 620 °C. This indicates that dextral strike-slip faulting along the Tonale Fault, recorded in these mylonites within the contact metamorphic aureole, must have started as early as around 34 Ma ago (Stipp et al. 2004).