The exposed residual crust in the Eastern Ghats Province records ultrahigh temperature (UHT) metamorphic conditions involving extensive crustal anatexis and melt loss. However, there is disagreement about the tectonic evolution of this late Mesoproterozoic-early Neoproterozoic orogen due to conflicting petrological, structural and geochronological interpretations. One of the petrological disputes in residual high Mg-Al granulites concerns the origin of fine-grained mineral intergrowths comprising cordierite + K-feldspar AE quartz AE biotite AE sillimanite AE plagioclase. These intergrowths wrap around porphyroblast phases and are interpreted to have formed by the breakdown of primary osumilite in the presence of melt trapped in the equilibration volume by the melt percolation threshold. The pressure (P)-temperature (T) evolution of four samples from three localities across the central Eastern Ghats Province is constrained using phase equilibria modelling in the chemical system NaResults of the modelling are integrated with published geochronological results for these samples to show that the central Eastern Ghats Province followed a common P-T-t history. This history is characterized by peak UHT metamorphic conditions of 945-955°C and 7.8-8.2 kbar followed by a slight increase in pressure and close-to-isobaric cooling to the conditions of the elevated solidus at 940-900°C and 8.5-8.3 kbar. In common with other localities from the Eastern Ghats Province, the early development of cordierite before osumilite and the peak to immediate post-peak retrograde reaction between osumilite and melt to produce the intergrowth features requires that the prograde evolution was one of contemporaneous increasing pressure with increasing temperature. This counter-clockwise (CCW) evolution is evaluated for one sample using inverse phase equilibria modelling along a schematic P-T path of 150°C kbar À1 starting from the low P-T end of the prograde P-T path as constrained by the phase equilibria modelling. The inverse modelling is executed by step-wise down temperature reintegration of sufficient melt into the residual bulk chemical composition at the P-T point of the 1 mol.% melt isopleth at each step, representing the melt remaining on grain boundaries after each prograde drainage event, to reach the melt connectivity transition (MCT) of 7 mol.%. The procedure is repeated until a plausible protolith composition is recovered. The result demonstrates that clastic sedimentary rocks that followed a CCW P-T evolution could have produced the observed mineral assemblages and microstructures preserved in the central Eastern Ghats Province. This study also highlights the role of melt during UHT metamorphism, particularly its importance to both chemical and physical processes along the prograde and retrograde segments of the P-T path. These processes include: (i) an increase in diffusive length scales during the late prograde to peak evolution, creating equilibration volumes larger than a standard thin section; (ii) the development of retrogr...
Metapelitic and charnockitic granulites exposed around Chilka Lake in the northern sector of the Eastern Ghats, India, preserve a multi-stage P-T record. A high-T decompression from above 10 kbar to 8 kbar around 1100" C has been determined from Mg-rich metapelites (XMg > 0.60) with quartz-cordieriteorthopyroxene-sillimanite and cordierite-orthopyroxene-sapphirine-spinel assemblages. Between this and a second decompression to 6.0 kbar, isobaric cooling from 830 to 670" C at 8 kbar is evident. These changes are registered by the rim Compositions of orthopyroxene and garnet in charnockites and metapelites with an orthopyroxene-quartz-garnet-plagioclase-cordierite assemblage, and are further supported by the garnet + quartz .$ orthopyroxene + cordierite and biotite-producing reactions in sapphirine-bearing metapelites. Another indication of isobaric cooling from 800 to 650" C at 6.0 kbar is evident from rim compositions of orthopyroxene and garnet in patchy charnockites. Two sets of P-T values are obtained from metapelites with a quartz-plagioclase-garnet-sillimanite-cordierite assemblage: garnet and plagioclase cores yield 6.2 kbar, 700" C and the rims 5 kbar, 650" C, suggesting a third decompression.The earliest deformation (Fl) structures are preserved in the larger charnockite bodies and the metapelites which retain the high P-T record. The effects of post-crystalline F2 deformation are observed in garnet megacrysts formed during or prior to F1 in some metapelites. Fold styles indicate a compressional regime during F1 and an extensional regime during F2. These lines of evidence and two phases of cooling at different pressures point to a discontinuity after the first cooling, and imply reworking. Two segments of the present P-T path replicate parts of the P-T paths suggested for four other granulite terranes in the Eastern Ghats, and the sense of all the paths is the same. This, plus the signature of three phases of deformation identified in the Eastern Ghats, suggests that the Chilka Lake granulites could epitomize the metamorphic evolution of the Eastern Ghats. Recent work on P-T-t paths indicates cooling from moderately high temperatures and decompression at ROCK TYPES A N D F I E L D RELATIONS medium temperatures in several sectors of the Eastern There are five major rock types in the Chilka area: Ghats. The paucity of evidence for the prograde path does metapelites (with intercalated quartzites and rarely 287 288 s. K . S E N Er A L '. ' : I Bf'3d 290 9 290
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