Abstract
Useful quantitative discussion of the physical processes associated with granulite formation requires reliable estimates of temperature, pressure and age for the metamorphism. The latter is essential and is commonly lacking. The processes by which slow cooling and fast cooling granulites form are likely to be different.
Application of a simple, analytical one-dimensional thermal model to the case of slow-cooling granulites shows that the most probable tectonic setting for their formation is non-extensional lithospheric thinning. The model shows that very slow cooling (i.e. over a number of tens of ma) requires that the metamorphic temperature experienced by the rock was not very much above the equilibrium temperature for that depth. Detailed analysis of any particular situation is sensitive to the variation of thermal diffusivity and radiogenic heat production in the lithosphere.
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Oxburgh, E.R. (1990). Some Thermal Aspects of Granulite History. In: Vielzeuf, D., Vidal, P. (eds) Granulites and Crustal Evolution. NATO ASI Series, vol 311. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2055-2_29
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2055-2_29
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