Coleman R.G., Wang X. (Eds.) Ultrahigh Pressure Metamorphism

Cambridge University Press, 2005. — 539 p. — (Cambridge Topics in Petrology). — ISBN: 978-0-521-43214-6.Recent discoveries of diamond and coesite in the upper crustal rocks of the Earth have drastically changed scientists' ideas concerning the limits of crustal metamorphism. Previously, it was thought that such ultrahigh pressure minerals could form only in the Earth's deep mantle or as a result of high energy impacts of extraterrestrial objects on the Earth's surface.
In examining the geological aspects of diamond and coesite in the Earth's crust, this book attempts to define an entirely new field of metamorphism. In doing so, it provides unique insights into the formation of diamond and coesite at very high pressures and explores new ideas regarding the tectonic setting of this style of metamorphism. After presenting a general overview of the geology and tectonics of UHPM, the text relates experimental and petrogenetic studies of UHPM minerals to P-T stability fields. Then the principal mineralogical indicators of UHPM are discussed, and details relating them to possible new, yet undiscovered areas are outlined. Several chapters discuss the structural style of the deformation of these UHPM rocks, relating them to subduction and continental collision. Estimated thermal and kinetic parameters are modeled to produce constraints on the conditions leading to UHPM.
Separate chapters provide petrologic and tectonic accounts of UHPM occurrences in the Western Alps, Norway, China and Russia, as well as of the UHPM peridotites in Ronda, Spain and Beni Bouchera, Morocco.
This book will be of particular interest to researchers and graduate students of metamorphic petrology and global tectonics.