Comparison of Archean and Phanerozoic granulites: Southern India and North American Appalachians

Abstract

Archean granulites at the southern end of the Dharwar craton of India and Phanerozoic granulites in the southern Appalachians of North America share an important characteristic: both show continuous transitions from amphibolite facies rocks to higher grade. This property is highly unusual for granulite terranes, which commonly are bounded by major shears or thrusts. These two terranes thus offer an ideal opportunity to compare petrogenetic models for deep crustal rocks formed in different time periods, which conventional wisdom suggests may have had different thermal profiles. The salient features of the Archean amphibolite-to-granulite transition in southern India have been recently summarized. The observed metamorphic progression reflects increasing temperature and pressure. Conditions for the Phanerozoic amphibolite-to-granulite transition in the southern Appalachians were documented. The following sequence of prograde reactions was observed: kyanite = sillimanite, muscovite = sillimanite + K-feldspar, partial melting of pelites, and hornblende = orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + garnet. The mineral compositions of low-variance assemblages in mafic and intermediate rocks are almost identical for the two granulite facies assemblages. In light of their different fluid regimes and possible mechanisms for heat flow augmentation, it seems surprising that these Archean and Phanerozoic granulite terranes were apparently metamorphosed under such similar conditions of pressure and temperature. Comparison with other terrains containing continuous amphibolite-to-granulite facies transitions will be necessary before this problem can be addressed