[1] High-grade orthogneisses from granulite-bearing lower crustal unit show extreme finite strains of both K-feldspar and plagioclase with respect to weakly deformed quartz aggregates. K-feldspar aggregate in the most intensely deformed sample shows interstitial grains of quartz and albite, which also mark some intragranular fractures within K-feldspar grains. Both interstitial grains and fractures are oriented mostly perpendicular to the sample stretching lineation. Quartz and albite grains within K-feldspar bands are interpreted as crystallized from interstitial melt and the petrology study shows that the melt was produced by a metamorphic reaction in plagioclase-mica bands. Thermodynamic Perple_X modeling shows that melt volume increase was negligible and melt amount was too small to generate considerable melt overpressure for calculated PT conditions. It is therefore suggested that dilation of K-feldspar aggregates and fracturing of its grains represent a final creep failure state, which resulted from the cavitation process accompanying grain boundary sliding controlled diffusion creep. The consequence of cavitation-driven dilation of K-feldspar aggregates is the local underpressure resulting in infiltration of melt from plagioclase bands. Analogy with metallurgy experiments shows that the cavitation process, exclusively developed in cryptoperthitic K-feldspar, can be attributed to its lower purity compared to more pure plagioclase. Contrasting rheological behavior of feldspars with respect to quartz prior to fracturing is attributed to different deformation mechanisms. Feldspars appear weaker due to grain boundary sliding accommodated by coupled melt-enhanced diffusion creep along grain boundaries and dislocation creep within grains, in contrast to quartz deforming via grain boundary migration accommodated dislocation creep.Citation: Závada, P., K. Schulmann, J. Konopásek, S. Ulrich, and O. Lexa (2007), Extreme ductility of feldspar aggregates-Meltenhanced grain boundary sliding and creep failure: Rheological implications for felsic lower crust,

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A section of anatectic felsic rocks from a high-pressure (>13 kbar) continental crust (Variscan Bohemian Massif) preserves unique evidence for coupled melt flow and heterogeneous deformation during continental subduction. The section reveals layers of migmatitic granofels interlayered with anatectic banded orthogneiss and other rock types within a single deformation fabric related to the prograde metamorphism. Granofels layers represent high strain zones and have traces of localized porous melt flow that infiltrated the host banded orthogneiss and crystallized granitic melt in the grain interstices. This process is inferred from: (1) gradational contacts between orthogneiss and granofels layers; (2) grain size decrease and crystallographic preferred orientation of major phases, compatible with oriented growth of crystals from interstitial melt during granular flow, accommodated by melt-assisted grain boundary diffusion creep mechanisms; and (3) pressuretemperature equilibria modeling showing that the melts were not generated in situ. We further argue that this porous melt flow, focused along the deformation layering, significantly decreases the strength of the crustal section of the subducting continental lithosphere. As a result, detachment folds develop that decouple the shallower parts of the layered anatectic sequence from the underlying and continuously subducting continental plate, which triggers exhumation of this anatectic sequence.