Eclogites from the south Tianshan, NW China are grouped into two types: glaucophane and hornblende eclogites, composed, respectively, of garnet + omphacite + glaucophane + paragonite + epidote + quartz and garnet + omphacite + hornblende (sensu lato) + paragonite + epidote + quartz, plus accessory rutile and ilmenite. These eclogites are diverse both in mineral composition and texture not only between the two types but also among the different selected samples within the glaucophane eclogite. Using thermocalc 3.1 and recent models of activity–composition relation for minerals, a P–T projection and a series of P–T pseudosections for specific samples of eclogite have been calculated in the system Na2O–CaO–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O (NCFMASH) with quartz and water taken to be in excess. On the basis of these phase diagrams, the phase relations and P–T conditions are well delineated. The three selected samples of glaucophane eclogite AK05, AK11 and AK17 are estimated to have peak P–T conditions, respectively, of 540–550 °C at c. 16 kbar, c. 560 °C at 15–17 kbar and c. 580 °C at 15–19 kbar, and two samples of hornblende eclogite AK10 and AK30 of 610–630 °C and 17–18 kbar. Together with H2O‐content contours in the related P–T pseudosections and textural relations, both types of eclogite are inferred to show clockwise P–T paths, with the hornblende eclogite being transformed from the glaucophane eclogite assemblage dominantly through increasing temperature.

The Luliangshan garnet peridotite massif is an ultramafic complex in the North Qaidam UHPM belt, NW China. The strongly layered complex comprising garnet-bearing dunite, garnet-harzburgite, garnet-lherzolite and garnet-pyroxenite and garnet-free dunite, occurs together with eclogite embedded in various continental gneisses. The geological setting, the internal structure, bulk-composition, rare earth elements, isotopic and mineral composition data show that the garnet peridotite derives from a middle Ordovician Alaskan-type layered sub-arc cumulate intrusion of ascending mantle wedge melts. An abyssal peridotite protolith can be excluded. During the Ordovician-Silurian continental collision, thickening and foundering, the Luliangshan peridotite complex was exposed to ultrahigh pressures (UHP) reaching 5.5 GPa possibly >6 GPa at temperatures of 900°C (perhaps up to 1000°C) corresponding to a depth of 200 km. The extreme pressure conditions have been derived from thermobarometry using mineral compositions of the garnet peridotite assemblages, but they are supported by a wealth of decompression-induced mineral exsolutions in UHP minerals and by diamond inclusion in zircon. The Luliangshan garnet peridotite has experienced four stages of retrograde overprint during exhumation that lasted into the Devonian: (i) decompression-induced unmixing of the UHP minerals; (ii) garnet kelyphitisation; (iii) amphibole overprinting and (iv) serpentinization. Hydrous minerals occurring within peak metamorphic assemblage represent pseudo-inclusions, that is reaction products of reactions related to various stages of decompression and cooling rather than prograde inclusions during porphyroblast growth.