Overview of UHP Metamorphism and Tectonics in Well-Studied Collisional Orogens

Abstract

In Eurasia, the Qinling-Dabie-Sulu belt of eastern China, the Kokchetav Complex of northern Kazakhstan, the Maksyutov Complex of the southern Urals, the Dora-Maira massif of the Western Alps, and the Western Gneiss Region of Norway mark profound intracontinental collisional sutures. Adjacent regions exhibit scant evidence of contemporaneous calc-alkaline volcanism/plutonism. Each ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic complex contains mineralogic and textural relics of coesite ± diamond as well as other very high P, moderate-T phases such as K-rich clinopyroxene, Mg-rich garnet, ellenbergerite, lawsonite, Al-rutile, glaucophane, high-Si phengite, and the phase assemblages coesite + dolomite, magnesite + diopside, and talc + kyanite, diopside, jadeite, or phengite. In each of these well-studied Eurasian complexes, maximum pressures approached or exceeded 2.8 GPa. Deep-seated recrystallization of old, cool continental crust took place during Phanerozoic time. Subduction zones constitute the only known plate-tectonic environment where such high-P, low-T conditions exist. Disaggregated, exhumed ultrahigh-pressure terranes consist of relatively thin sialic sheets 5 ± 3 km thick. After cessation of UHP recrystallization, tectonic slices ascended largely because of buoyancy to shallow depths along stress guides provided by the subduction zones themselves. Collisional sheets that retain UHP relics (micro-inclusions enclosed in strong, impermeable, unreactive mineralogic host grains) lost heat by conduction across both upper, normal-fault and lower, reverse-fault contacts. These sheets rose to mid-crustal levels rapidly at exhumation rates approaching 10 mm/yr. Backreaction attending decompression in all cases was nearly complete; where UHP relics survive, retrogression evidently was limited by the coarse grain size and relative impermeability of the rocks, as well as by declining temperature and lack of aqueous fluids.