Dora-Maira Massif discovery reveals 530-million-year-old rocks

Researchers have discovered ancient magmatic rocks in the Dora-Maira Massif of the Western Alps, dating back approximately 530 million years to the Cambrian period. This finding, led by a team from the University of Turin and the University of Bern, challenges previous geological understandings of the region.

Previously, the Pinerolo-Sanfront unit of the Alpine massif was believed to consist primarily of younger rocks formed between 360 and 250 million years ago during the Carboniferous and Permian periods. However, by analyzing zircon minerals, scientists identified a pre-Carboniferous basement that predates the formation of the Alpine mountain range itself.

These ancient fragments of continental crust are linked to the history of the ancient continent Gondwana. The research, coordinated by Francesco De Cesari and Rodolfo Carosi, was presented at the joint congress of the Italian Geological Society and the Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrology.