The present study reports the results of research on volcaniclastic products from Logudoro (northern Sardinia), a reconstructed
stratigraphic succession some hundreds of meters thick, comprising two different ignimbritic units separated by an epiclastic
layer (generally ˜10 m thick). Clinoptilolite is the most widely distributed authigenic phase in epiclastite and unwelded
units, always associated with opal-CT and sometimes with smectite. An adularia-like feldspar, cristobalite and epigenetic
quartz are typical phases of welded units. Within the zeolitized units (unwelded ignimbrite and epiclastic units) clinoptilolite
and opal-CT constitute the cement deriving from the transformation of the precursor rhyolitic glass, in agreement with a single
zeolitization process that developed after the deposition of the entire succession. Silica increases in zeolitized rocks with
respect to the precursor material, leading to hypothesize that the secondary mineralization process was favored by mineralized
hydrothermal fluids preferentially circulating through the fault system of the area. Quartz veins in welded subunit and K-feldspar
(adularia-like) preferentially located near the faults are in agreement with this hypothesis. The interaction of these fluids
with the glassy fraction favored its dissolution and the consequent crystallization of clinoptilolite. Furthermore, the pH
increase and the silica supersaturation enhanced the contemporary or subsequent precipitation of opal-CT.
Received: 5 June 2000 / Accepted: 14 August 2000