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for these rocks to about 5008C and 15^16 kbar. These P–T constraints, together with the tectonic fabric of the marbles, suggest that deformation and recrystallization occurred at or near the thermal maximum of metamorphism.

Monazite crystallization ages have been measured in situ using SIMS and EMP analysis of samples from the Bronson Hill anticlinorium in central New England. In west-central New Hampshire, each major tectonic unit (nappe) displays a distinctive P-T path and metamorphic history that requires significant post-metamorphic faulting to place them in their current juxtaposition, and monazite ages were determined to constrain the timing of metamorphism and nappe assembly. Monazite ages from the low- pressure, high-temperature Fall Mountain nappe range from c. 455 to 355 Ma, and Y zoning indicates that these ages comprise three to four distinct age domains, similar to that found in the overlying Chesham Pond nappe. The underlying Skitchewaug nappe contains monazite ages that range from c. 417 to 307 Ma. 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages indicate rapid cooling of the Chesham Pond and Fall Mountain nappes after 350 Ma, which is believed to represent the time of emplacement of the high-level Chesham Pond and Fall Mountain nappes onto rocks of the underlying Skitchewaug nappe. Garnet zone rocks from western New Hampshire contain monazite that display a range of ages (c. 430-340 Ma). Both the metamorphic style and monazite ages suggest that the low-grade belt in western New Hampshire is continuous with the Vermont sequence to the west. Rocks of the Big Staurolite nappe in western New Hampshire contain monazite that crystallized between c. 370 and 290 Ma and the same unit along strike in northern New Hampshire and central Connecticut records ages of c. 257-300 Ma. Conspicuously absent from this nappe are the older age populations that are found in both the overlying nappes and underlying garnet zone rocks. These monazite ages confirm that the metamorphism observed in the Big Staurolite nappe occurred significantly later than that in the units structurally above and below. These data support the hypothesis that the Big Staurolite nappe represents a major tectonic boundary, along which rocks of the New Hampshire metamorphic series were juxtaposed against rocks of the Vermont series during the Alleghanian.

Zr-in-rutile thermometry on samples of blueschist from Sifnos, Greece, yields temperatures that reflect progressive crystallization of rutile from ca. 445 to 505°C with an analytical precision of + 18/−27 and ± 10°C using the electron microprobe and ± 1.5–3.5°C using the ion microprobe. Individual grains are generally homogeneous within analytical uncertainty. Different grains within a single sample record temperature differences as large 55°, although in most samples the range of temperatures is on the order of 25°. In several samples, Zr-in-rutile temperatures from grains within garnet are lower than temperatures from matrix grains, reflecting growth of rutile with increasing temperature of metamorphism. Although the specific rutile-producing reactions have not been identified, it is inferred that rutile grows from either continuous reaction involving the breakdown of lower grade phases (possibly ilmenite), or from pseudomorph reactions involving the breakdown of relic igneous precursors at blueschist-facies conditions. No systematic variation in rutile temperatures was observed across the blueschist belt of northern Sifnos, consistent with the belt having behaved as a coherent block during subduction.

U‐Pb ages measured on zircons from the Tobacco Root Mountains and monazite from the Highland Mountains indicate that the northwestern Wyoming province experienced an episode of high‐grade metamorphism at ∼1.77 Ga. Leucosome emplaced in Archean gneisses from the Tobacco Root Mountains contains a distinctive population of zircons with an age of 1.77 Ga but also contains zircons to ∼3.5 Ga; it is interpreted to have been derived primarily by anatexis of nearby Archean schist. A granulite facies mafic dike that cuts across Archean gneissic banding in the Tobacco Root Mountains contains two distinct populations of zircons. A group of small (

Numerous rod-shaped calcite crystals occur in the blueschist to eclogite facies marbles of Syros, Greece. The rods show a shape-preferred orientation, and the long axes of the rods are oriented at a large angle to foliation. The crystals also have a crystallographic-preferred orientation: calcite c-axes are oriented parallel to the long axes of the rods. Based on their chemical composition, shape, and occurrence in high-pressure marbles, these calcite crystals are interpreted as topotactic pseudomorphs after aragonite that developed a crystallographic-preferred orientation during peak metamorphism. This interpretation is consistent with deformation of aragonite by dislocation creep, which has been observed in laboratory experiments but has not been previously reported on the basis of field evidence. Subsequent to the high-pressure deformation of the aragonite marbles, the aragonite recrystallized statically into coarse rod-shaped crystals, maintaining the crystallographic orientation developed during deformation. During later exhumation, aragonite reverted to calcite, and the marbles experienced little further deformation, at least in the pseudomorph-rich layers. Some shearing of pseudomorph-bearing marble layers did occur and is indicated by twinning of calcite and by a variable inclination of the pseudomorphs relative to foliation.

Mountain, Skitchewaug and Big Staurolite nappes. Reactivation of A new, detailed tectonic model is presented for the Acadian orogenic this fabric during thrusting is recorded in some rocks of the Big belt of central New England (Vermont and New Hampshire) that Staurolite nappe by rotated garnets that grew during near-isothermal accounts for a wide range of petrological and structural observations. loading. Only the sillimanite isograd crosses the Fall Mountain– Three belts are considered: the Eastern Vermont, Merrimack, and Skitchewaug nappe boundary. Metamorphic breaks across the Skitintervening Bronson Hill belts. Specific observations in eastern chewaug–Big Staurolite nappe boundary, at the base of the Big Vermont that are accounted for in the model include the following. Staurolite nappe, and at the margin of the Keene and Alstead domes P–T paths are clockwise with maximum pressures near the Athens, require post-metamorphic thrusting when P–T conditions were in Chester, and Strafford domes of 8–11 kbar, but with maximum the greenschist facies. These observations can be explained by a pressures decreasing to 3–5 kbar at the boundary with the Bronson relatively simple model involving in-sequence thrusting from east to Hill belt. Differential exhumation of the Vermont domes relative to west commencing in central New Hampshire at 400–410 Ma. the rocks in easternmost Vermont is required by the recorded differences Preservation of the low-grade belt along the Vermont–New Hampin maximum pressure (5–6 kbar; 15–20 km) and the present-day shire border requires that crustal thickening in Vermont was not geographical separation (7–10 km). Specific observations in New caused by emplacement of New Hampshire nappes onto eastern Hampshire that are explained include the following. P–T paths in Vermont and that the nappes of western New Hampshire had time the Merrimack belt are counter-clockwise with maximum pressures to cool before final juxtaposition against the low-grade belt. Cooling of 4–5 kbar and are related to high regional heat flow and heat ages constrain this final juxtaposition to have occurred in the transfer by early Acadian plutons. P–T paths in the Bronson Hill Carboniferous, suggesting that the Acadian was a prolonged event belt are intimately associated with structural position. An early spanning as much as 100 Myr. contact metamorphism is evidenced in the Skitchewaug and Fall Mountain nappes near contacts with the early Acadian Bethlehem gneiss (>400–410 Ma). Peak metamorphic temperature rises upwards in the nappe sequence (an inverted metamorphic sequence)

A relatively simple petrogenetic grid for partial melting of pelitic rocks in the NCKFMASH system is presented based on the assumption that the only H2O available for melting is through dehydration reactions. The grid includes both discontinuous and continuous Fe-Mg reactions; contours of Fe/(Fe+Mg) for continuous reactions define P-T vectors along which continuous melting will occur. For biotite-bearing assemblages (garnet+biotite + sillimanite + K-feldspar + liquid and garnet + biotite + cordierite + K-feldspar + liquid), Fe/(Fe+Mg) contours have negative slopes and melting will occur with increasing temperature or pressure. For biotite-absent assemblages (garnet + cordierite + sillimanite + K-feldspar + liquid or garnet + cordierite + orthopyroxene + K-feldspar + liquid) Fe/(Fe + Mg) contours have flat slopes and melting will occur only with increasing pressure. The grid predicts that abundant matrix K-feldspar should only be observed if rocks are heated at P 3.8 kbar, and that generation of late biotite + sillimanite replacing garnet, cordierite, or as selvages around leu- cosomes should be common in rocks in which melt is not removed. There is also a predicted field for dehydration melting of staurolite between 5 and 12 kbar. Textures in migmatites from New Hampshire, USA, suggest that prograde dehydration melting reactions are very nearly completely reversible during cooling and crystallization in rocks in which melt is not removed. Therefore, many reaction textures in “low grade” migmatites may represent retrograde rather than prograde reactions.

A quantitative petrogenetic grid for pelitic schists in the system KFMASH that includes the phases garnet, chlorite, biotite, chloritoid, cordierite, staurolite, talc, kyanite, andalusite, sillimanite, and pyrophyllite (with quartz, H2O and muscovite or K-feldspar in excess) is presented. The grid is based on thermodynamic data of Berman et al. (1985) and Berman (1988) for endmember KFASH and KMASH equilibria and natural Fe-Mg partitioning for the KFMASH system. Calculation of P-T slopes and the change in Fe/(Fe+Mg) along reactions in the KFMASH system were made using the Gibbs method. In addition, the effect on the grid of MnO and CaO is evaluated quantitatively. The resulting grid is consistent with typical Buchan and Barrovian parageneses at medium to high grades. At low grades, the grid predicts an extensive stability field for the paragenesis chloritoid+biotite which arises because of the unusual facing of the reaction chloritoid+biotite + quartz+H2O = garnet+chlorite+muscovite, which proceeds to the right with increasing T in the KFMASH system. However, the reaction proceeds to the left with increasing T in the MnKFASH system so the assemblage chloritoid + biotite is restricted to bulk compositions with high Fe/(Fe+Mg+Mn). Typical metapelites will therefore contain garnet+chlorite at low grades rather than chloritoid + biotite.