Abstract
THE formation of the high-pressure, high-temperature rocks known as granulites has traditionally been attributed to metamorphism in the deeper parts of continental collision zones and magmatic arcs1-3. More recently, greater consideration has been given to the possibility of granulite formation during continental rifting4-6, and in particular4 to whether granulites are forming today beneath the North American Basin and Range province. Here we report thermobarometric data and single-zircon U-Pb ages for an analogous, but much more deeply exhumed, extensional terrain in Fiord-land, New Zealand7,8, where Early Cretaceous granulites underwent renewed granulite-facies metamorphism at significantly shallower crustal levels following the extensional collapse of magmatically thickened continental crust. Our data show that granulite-facies metamorphism can take place during continental extension, and demonstrate that in western New Zealand it was accompanied at higher structural levels by the emplacement of one or more metamorphic core complexes7-9, in keeping with the model postulated4 for the Basin and Range province.
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Gibson, G., Ireland, T. Granulite formation during continental extension in Fiordland, New Zealand. Nature 375, 479–482 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/375479a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/375479a0
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