Matteo Alvaro, Silvio Ferrero and Ross Angel (contact: matteo.alvaro@unipv.it)

Protected by their host minerals which act as “pressure vessels” that prevent post-formation alteration, inclusions yield a wealth of information on geological processes that otherwise would remain invisible at the whole rock scale. Both hosts and inclusions have the capability to record pressure and temperatures of encapsulation, mantle metasomatic processes, magma genesis, mineral solubility, mineral growth, redox processes and mass and heat transfer. The correct interpretation of the geological record preserved in the inclusions – whether they are mineral, poly-phase, melt or fluid inclusions- requires careful microstructural and microchemical investigation of both inclusion and host. Recent methodological and technical advances, in particular in the analysis of solid and melt inclusions, have resulted in new ways of extracting this information. This session will be devoted to a presentation and discussion of new and revised methodologies for the measurement, analysis and geological interpretation of mineral, fluid and melt inclusions. Contributions describing (1) theoretical analysis of host-inclusion systems, (2) methodological advances in inclusion characterization, (3) microstructural studies of fluid, melt and poly-phase inclusions and their hosts in natural rocks, are all welcome.

The Keynote speaker will be Maria Luce Frezzotti (University of Milano Bicocca, Italy)

In association with this session there will be a workshop to teach participants how to measure stress states in solid inclusions, and how to interpret the results as entrapment conditions, thus identifying P-T points in the rock history. Full details on the workshop page.