Brief history of petrotectonic research on the Sanbagawa Belt, Japan

Abstract

Abstract Petrological study of the Sanbagawa schists was initiated by B. Koto (1856–1935) and extensive petrographic works were performed by J. Suzuki (1896–1970) and Y. Horikosi (1905–1992), who studied in the Besshi area of central Shikoku. Petrological work based on the mineral facies concept of P. Eskola (1883–1964) was initiated in Japan in the 1950s by A. Miyashiro on the low pressure/temperature (P/T) Abukuma complex, and then by Y. Seki and S. Banno on the high P/T Sanbagawa Metamorphic Belt. A unique inverted thermal structure was established by researchers in the 1970s. Therefore, mainly geological and petrographic features of the Sanbagawa Belt were established by the 1990s, and contemporary researchers are now testing the classical images using the new and quantitative viewpoints of geochronological, structural, tectonic, and thermal modeling.