What can high-P sheared orthogneisses tell us? An example from the Curinga–Girifalco Line (Calabria, southern Italy)

High-P (HP) mineral parageneses are usually poorly developed within metagranitoids, as these rocks are commonly affected by fluid-deficient conditions when experiencing a metamorphic cycle. However, since ductile shear zones can act as preferential pathways for fluids in the Earth's crust, if metagranitoids are involved in ductile shear under HP conditions, the presence of fluids during deformation can induce recrystallization and equilibration in these rocks. With this in mind, we investigate the formation and evolution of mineral assemblages in the orthogneisses of the Castagna Unit from the northern Serre Massif (Calabria, southern Italy). During Alpine tectonics, the thrusting along the Curinga–Girifalco Line juxtaposed these rocks, representative of the Hercynian intermediate crust, below the lithologies of the Hercynian lower crust. A detailed microstructural study of the orthogneisses, sampled along a progressively increasing ductile deformation gradient, revealed a variation in the mineral assemblage between the weakly deformed orthogneisses and those in the shear zone. Phase diagram calculations in the MnNCKFMASHTO system indicate that the progressive replacement of relict minerals by new, Alpine minerals in the shear zone, was related to the presence of fluids during deformation. This allowed equilibration of the sheared orthogneisses up to metamorphic peak conditions of ~0.9–1.0 GPa and ~560–590°C. Our integrated study highlights that both weakly deformed and mylonitic orthogneiss share the same peak metamorphic conditions, and that the new equilibrium mineral assemblage was stabilized in the mylonitic orthogneisses along a fluid-conservative prograde path, where no fluid was added or lost. After metamorphic peak, the fluid was channelled towards the inner part of the shear zone, with fluid-present conditions that were restricted to the mylonitic orthogneisses close to the tectonic contact. These mylonitic orthogneisses record cooling and exhumation to 0.6–0.7 GPa and 360–400°C, showing an overall anticlockwise P–T path. By comparing our findings with existing structural studies, we highlight that the Castagna Unit was under-thrusted to lower-crustal depths during the Alpine orogeny, before the re-activation of the Curinga–Girifalco Line during the Oligocene to Miocene extensional tectonic phase, that enabled the exhumation of this unit