Pizzo Crampiolo Sud, Devero Alp, Baceno, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province, Piedmont, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Pizzo Crampiolo Sud	Mountain
Devero Alp	Alpine Pasture
Baceno	Commune
Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province	Province
Piedmont	Region
Italy	Country

Pizzo Crampiolo Sud, Devero Alp, Ossola Valley, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province, Piedmont, Italy

Pizzo Crampiolo Sud is located to the east of Punta della Rossa/Rothorn (2887 m), from which it is separated by Bocca della Rossa (2392 m), and entirely composed of rocks of the Geisspfad ultramafic complex. The mountain contains two distinct summits, Pizzo Crampiolo Sud (2766 m) to the north and Pizzo Fizzo or Fizzi (2757 m) to the south-east, separated by a notch at 2720 m. Punta Esmeralda (2592 m) is a small peak on the west ridge of Pizzo Crampiolo Sud.

The main rock consists of an antigorite-olivine (forsterite)-tremolite assemblage, grey-green on freshly exposed surfaces and typically reddish when weathered. Occurrences of folded antigorite-olivine (forsterite) schists are present on the Pizzo Crampiolo Sud and Pizzo Fizzo summits; minor dark green antigorite schists occur along the flanks of Pizzo Fizzo; talc schist lenses containing large actinolite crystals are known along the south face of Punta Esmeralda.

Significant andradite crystals have been found on the southern slope of the west ridge of Pizzo Crampiolo Sud near the starting point of the climbing route called "Via delle placche", to the east of the gully between the Punta Esmeralda south face and Pizzo Crampiolo Sud southwest face. These rhombododecahedral crystals (up to 3.5 cm across), yellow-brown, yellow-green or apple-green in colour, are usually opaque and sometimes show rounded faces and overgrowths of smaller translucent crystals. Furthermore, small translucent, semitransparent crystals, yellow-green or apple-green in colour, have been found within veins of massive andradite. The largest andradite crystals from this occurrence are zoned and consist of an opaque rim, yellow-brown to brown to greenish in colour, and a core showing deeper shades of green and vitreous greasy lustre. XRF and XRD analyses on such crystals have shown no appreciable crystal-chemical difference between their core and rim (Albertini & Graeser, 2006; Albertini & Guastoni, 2009).

Crystals of andradite are also found on the northeastern slope of the mountain, to the SW of Alpe di Valdeserta.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References