Abstract
Wickham and Oxburgh1 recently proposed that low-pressure/high-temperature (low-P/high-T) metamorphism in the eastern Pyrenees, and possibly all low-P/high-T metamorphic belts, resulted from anomalously high mantle heat flow brought about by rifting. Their model is largely constrained by the presence of nearby synmetamorphic rift-related sedimentary rocks and the interpretation that the migmatites and granites are the product of in situ melting in the presence of an anomalously steep geotherm. Here we present an alternative model, in which low-P/high-T metamorphism (pro-grade reactions at pressures near or below the Al2SiO5 triple point) results from contact effects near sill-like igneous intrusions at intermediate crustal levels. Low-P/high-T conditions can be achieved through this process in regions of continent–continent collision with normal mantle heat flux as well as in zones of extension. Our model is based on studies of the low-P/high-T metamorphic terrane in the New England Appalachians.
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Lux, D., DeYoreo, J., Guldotti, C. et al. Role of plutonism in low-pressure metamorphic belt formation. Nature 323, 794–797 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/323794a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/323794a0
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