Abstract
Several quartzite bodies outcrop along the Ferreira-Ficalho Thrust Fault (South Portugal), a major accident of the Iberian Variscan Orogen. The sediment is a very pure quartz sandstone, with trace amounts of ultra-resistant heavy minerals and chromite. Chemical characterization (microprobe analyses and Mossbauer spectroscopy) showed the chromite to be unique: besides being Zn-rich, complexly zoned and a cation deficient spinel, all the iron was found to be fully oxidized to Fe (super 3+) . Structure refinement of single-crystal X-ray diffraction intensities unambiguously identifies the mineral as a chromite and the Mossbauer data are consistent with tetrahedrally coordinated Fe (super 3+) in the spinel structure. Current geodynamical models see the Ferreira-Ficalho Thrust Fault as a first-order suture resulting from a complex collision of two distinct continental blocks with partial obduction of the intervening oceanic crust. The chromite grains could be envisaged as remnants of an early erosion of this obducted oceanic crust, but its unique chemical character does not allow any definite conclusion. Yet, the complete quartzite heavy mineral contents and its petrographic features are not consistent with their deposition within a continental collision situation.
