Studies of high-pressure and ultra-high temperature granulites

This work represents an international collaboration with Drs. Michael Brown and Tim Johnson, Julie Baldwin and Barry Reno, along with Brazilian counterparts Reinhardt Fuck, Renato de Moraes and Rudolph Trouw.

This new project investigates the relationship between high-pressure (HP; P > 10 kbar) and ultrahigh-temperature (UHT; T > 900^oC) granulites and common granulites, and evaluates the role of melt loss and melt retention in the preservation of mineral assemblages that formed under conditions of extreme crustal metamorphism. Of particular interest in this regard is the relationship between the development, preservation and mode of exhumation of HP and UHT granulites to the tectonics of convergent (subduction.collision) orogens. The Brazilia Fold Belt displays tectonic elements that developed due to ocean basin evolution and subduction that culminated with continent-continent collision in Neoproterozoic time. The orogenic core of the Brazilia Fold Belt is composed of a metamorphic complex characterized by granulite facies rocks, and the recent discovery of HP and UHT granulites within the southern (Minas Gerais; kyanite-K-feldspar bearing granulites) and central (Goias; sapphirine-quartz and spinel-quartz bearing granulites) sectors of the belt provides the principal motivation for this research.

[Studies of Shallow Plutonism][Apatite in Igneous Systems][Microanalysis]
[UHP/UHT Granulites][Studies of Metal Partitioning][Otoliths]

Maintained by Phil Piccoli