Lago di Cignana, Val d’Aosta, Italy
Christopher Terry, University of St. Andrews

I would like to thank PESGB and everyone who supports the PESGB Young Professionals for the opportunity I have been given. For my undergraduate mapping project, I decided to map a section UHP metamorphism at Lago di Cignana, Val d’Aosta, Italy. For this, I spent 5 weeks camping in the shadow of the Matterhorn, and thanks to the funding I received I was able to prolong my stay a further 10 nights.

Drawn to the area by the exclusivity of being one of only two known coesite locations in the Alps, the aim of my mapping project was to determine the genetic relationship between the UHP metabasite unit and the adjoining Zermatt-Saas eclogite. By investigating the structure and nature of contacts between the units, the mineralogy and geochemical analysis using XRF the following conclusions were made. 1) Both units are formed as tholeiitic MORB sharing similar major element concentrations, 2) The presence of a mylonitised zone on the contact of the two units indicated a varied metamorphic path determining the two units to be mutually exclusive.

Without the funding of PESGB, the ability for my mapping project to succeed as it has would have been impossible. The extra 10 nights allowed me to expand the mapping area, and work on finer detailed maps to determine the structural relationships throughout the area.