Correlation and distinction between similar metapelite units: a geochemical approach in a case study from the Eastern Alps (Italy)

Major and trace element geochemistry can be used in correlating or discriminating different sedimentary and volcanic rock units and their metamorphic equivalents. A geochemical study has been done on metapelites coming from four different lithostratigraphic units, showing similar petrographic features and identical metamorphic characters. They come from the boundary between the Merano-Mules and Monteneve complexes, belonging to the Austroalpine crystalline basement of the Alps. In this area, the passage from one complex to the other is not sharp and the lithostratigraphic setting is still ambiguous.