Ultra‐high pressure metamorphic rocks in the Dabie‐Su‐Lu region, China: Their formation and exhumation

Abstract Based on petrological, structural, geological and geochronological research, the authors summarize the progress of ultra‐high pressure (UHP) metamorphic rock study since 1989 by Chinese geoscientists and foreign geoscientists in the Dabie‐Su‐Lu region. The authors introduce and discuss a two‐stage exhumation process for the UHP metamorphic rocks that have various lithologies; eclogite, ultramafics, jadeitic quartzite, gneiss, schist and marble. The metamorphic history of UHP metamorphic rocks is divided into three stages, that is, the pre‐eclogite stage, coesite eclogite stage, and retrograde stage. Prior to UHP metamorphism, the ultramafics had a high temperature environment assemblage of mantle and others had blueschist facies assemblages. The granulite facies assemblages, which have recorded a temperature increase event with decompression, have developed locally in the Weihai basaltic rocks. Isotopic ages show a long range from > 700 Ma to 200 Ma. The diversity in protoliths of UHP metamorphic rocks may be related to the variation of isotopic ages older than 400 Ma. The Sm‐Nd dating of ~ 220 Ma could reflect the initial exhumation stage after the peak UHP metamorphism in relation to the collision between the Sino‐Korean and Yangtze blocks and subsequent events. Petrological and structural evidence imply a two‐stage exhumation process. During the initial exhumation, the UHP metamorphic rocks were sheared and squeezed up in a high P/T regime. In the second exhumation stage the UHP metamorphic rocks were uplifted and eventually exposed with middle crustal rocks.