Preservation of ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) minerals formed at depths of 90-125 km require unusual conditions. Our subduction model involves underf low of a salient (250 ؎ 150 km wide, 90-125 km long) of continental crust embedded in cold, largely oceanic crust-capped lithosphere; loss of leading portions of the high-density oceanic lithosphere by slab break-off, as increasing volumes of microcontinental material enter the subduction zone; buoyancydriven return toward midcrustal levels of a thin (2-15 km thick), low-density slice; finally, uplift, backfolding, normal faulting, and exposure of the UHP terrane. Sustained over Ϸ20 million years, rapid (Ϸ5 mm͞year) exhumation of the thin-aspect ratio UHP sialic sheet caught between cooler hanging-wall plate and refrigerating, downgoing lithosphere allows withdrawal of heat along both its upper and lower surfaces. The intracratonal position of most UHP complexes ref lects consumption of an intervening ocean basin and introduction of a sialic promontory into the subduction zone. UHP metamorphic terranes consist chief ly of transformed, yet relatively low-density continental crust compared with displaced mantle material-otherwise such complexes could not return to shallow depths. Relatively rare metabasaltic, metagabbroic, and metacherty lithologies retain traces of phases characteristic of UHP conditions because they are massive, virtually impervious to f luids, and nearly anhydrous. In contrast, H 2 O-rich quartzofeldspathic, gneissose͞ schistose, more permeable metasedimentary and metagranitic units have backreacted thoroughly, so coesite and other UHP silicates are exceedingly rare. Because of the initial presence of biogenic carbon, and its especially sluggish transformation rate, UHP paragneisses contain the most abundantly preserved crustal diamonds.