High‐pressure granulites are characterised by the key associations garnet‐clinopyroxene‐plagioclase‐quartz (in basic rocks) and kyanite‐K‐feldspar (metapelites and felsic rocks) and are typically orthopyroxene‐free in both basic and felsic bulk compositions. In regional metamorphic areas, two essential varieties exist: a high‐ to ultrahigh‐temperature group and a group representing overprinted eclogites. The high‐ to ultrahigh‐temperature type formerly contained high‐temperature ternary feldspar (now mesoperthite) coexisting with kyanite, is associated with garnet peridotites, and formed at conditions above 900 °C and 1.5 GPa. Clinopyroxene in subordinate basic rocks is Al‐rich and textural evidence points to a high‐pressure–high‐temperature melting history. The second variety contains symplectite‐like or poikilitic clinopyroxene‐plagioclase intergrowths indicating former plagioclase‐free, i.e. eclogite facies assemblages. This type of rock formed at conditions straddling the high‐pressure amphibolite/high‐pressure granulite field at around 700–850 °C, 1.0–1.4 GPa. Importantly, in the majority of high‐pressure granulites, orthopyroxene is secondary and is a product of reactions at pressures lower than the peak recorded pressure. In contrast to low‐ and medium‐pressure granulites, which form at conditions attainable in the mid to lower levels of normal continental crust, high‐pressure granulites (of nonxenolith origin) mostly represent rocks formed as a result of short‐lived tectonic events that led to crustal thickening or subduction of the crust into the mantle. Short times at high‐temperature conditions are reflected in the preservation of prograde zoning in garnet and pyroxene. High‐pressure granulites of both regional types, although rare, are known from both old and young metamorphic terranes (e.g. c. 45 Ma, Namche Barwa, E Himalaya; 400–340 Ma, European Variscides; 1.8 Ga Hengshan, China; 1.9 Ga, Snowbird, Saskatchewan and 2.5 Ga Jianping, China). This spread of ages supports proposals suggesting that thermal and tectonic processes in the lithosphere have not changed significantly since at least the end of the Archean.

A B S TR A CT Pressure-temperature conditions for formation of the peak metamorphic mineral assemblages in phengite-bearing eclogites from Dabieshan have been assessed through a consideration of Fe2+-Mg2+ partitioning between garnet-omphacite and garnet-phengite pairs and of the reaction equilibrium celadonite+pyrope+grossular=muscovite+diopside, which incorporates an evaluation of the extent of the strongly pressure-dependent inverse Tschermak's molecule substitution in the phengites. For the latter equilibrium, the calibration and recommended activity-composition models indicated by Waters & Martin (1993) have been employed and importantly yield results consistent with petrographic evidence for the stability at peak conditions of coesite in certain samples and quartz in others.Confirmation that in some phengite-eclogite samples peak silicate mineral assemblages have equilibrated at confining pressures sufficient for the stability of coesite (and in some cases even diamond ) rather negates previous suggestions that coesite may have been stabilized in only very localized, possibly just intracrystalline, domains. Inherent difficulties in the evaluation of peak metamorphic temperatures from Fe2+-Mg2+ partitioning between mineral phases, due to uncertainties over Fe3+/Fe2+ ratios in the minerals (especially omphacites), and to re-equilibration during extensive retrograde overprinting in some samples, are also assessed and discussed.Our results indicate the existence in south-central Dabieshan of phengite eclogites with markedly different equilibration conditions within two structurally distinct tectonometamorphic terranes. Thus our data do not support earlier contentions that south-central Dabieshan comprises a structurally coherent continental-crust terrane with a regional P-T gradient signalling previous deepest-level subduction in the north. Instead, we recognize the Central Dabie ultra-high-pressure (coesite eclogite-bearing) terrane to be structurally overlain by a Southern Dabie high-pressure (quartz eclogite-bearing ) terrane at a major southerly dipping shear zone along which late orogenic extensional collapse appears to have eliminated at least 20 km of crustal section.

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