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Joined 2026-09-21 Message
Incoming links: Metamorphic facies
Granulite facies 2026-10-25
A high-temperature metamorphic facies, commonly with relatively water-poor assemblages; it does not determine a unique bulk composition.
Mafic granulite 2026-10-25
The geological record is a collection of thermometers with different sampling biases, not a direct time series of the whole mantle.
Primary melt compositions constrain melting temperatures. Reconstruct primary magma compositions from dated, suitably unaltered basalts by correcting for fractional crystallization and checking equilibrium with olivine. Experimental phase equilibrium constraints and mineral–melt thermometers then constrain the pressure and temperature of melt generation. In laboratory calibrations, a candidate melt and mineral assemblage are equilibrated at controlled pressure and temperature, quenched, and their crystals and glass analyzed. Repetition across adjacent conditions brackets the relevant phase equilibrium boundaries. Correcting for decompression and latent heat then allows comparison as mantle potential temperature. Age-controlled, non-arc basalt suites are especially valuable for separating changes in ambient mantle from exceptional mantle plumes. The 2010 reconstruction by Claude Herzberg and colleagues combines this approach with the temporal distribution of high-Mg parental melts.[ref]
Thermal history of the Earth and its petrological expression by Claude Herzberg and others. Sections on primary magma reconstruction and comparison of non-arc basalts with komatiites
Komatiites provide evidence for unusually hot melting, with qualifications. Many ancient high-Mg lavas, their olivine compositions and spinifex textures indicate large degrees of melting and high parental temperatures. Their abundance in Archean terrains and rarity in the recent record are consistent with a hotter past. However, a hot mantle plume, dissolved water, unusual source composition or crystal accumulation can change the interpretation. A komatiite temperature is not automatically the ambient mantle temperature, and spinifex texture alone is not a calibrated thermometer.
Melting residues and crustal products provide independent checks. Depleted peridotite mantle xenoliths, preserved mineral chemistry and compatible-element depletion constrain former melt fractions. More extensive melting can produce thicker mafic crust and more refractory residual mantle; these are predictions to compare with preserved rock packages and seismic or petrological constraints on ancient lithosphere. Metamorphic facies and pressure–temperature paths provide contextual evidence about geothermal regimes, but tectonic burial, decompression and preservation can mimic temporal changes. They do not directly measure .
The most persuasive inference is therefore agreement between dated melt thermometry, melting residues and their predicted crustal consequences, while separating source fertility, volatile content, mantle plume anomalies, alteration and selective preservation. Those controls explain why hotter ancient melting is better established than one exact global cooling curve.
A useful idealization is a thin sedimentary cover over a felsic upper continental crust, an intermediate middle continental crust, and a more mafic lower continental crust, ending at the Mohorovičić discontinuity at about 35–40 km. The boundaries within the continental crust are approximate compositional divisions, not three universal sharp interfaces.
An idealized modern continental crustal column
. An original schematic for a 38 km thick continental crust. Depth ranges illustrate a compositional tendency; individual provinces have different lithologies and boundaries. Details.
- At the surface, a variable, commonly kilometre-scale sedimentary cover contains sediments and sedimentary rocks. Exposed crystalline basement can instead occur at the surface.
- In the upper roughly 15 km, representative rocks are granite, granodiorite and compositionally related gneiss, with quartz and feldspar. Sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks and volcanic rocks make this layer heterogeneous.
- At roughly 15–25 km, intermediate gneiss and amphibolite-facies assemblages become important. Diorite to granodiorite compositions and amphibole- and plagioclase-bearing rocks are representative.
- At roughly 25–38 km, mafic granulite and gabbro-derived metamorphic rocks are a useful average, with plagioclase, pyroxene and sometimes garnet. Some provinces instead have substantially intermediate or felsic lower continental crust.
- Below the Mohorovičić discontinuity is peridotite of the mantle, dominated by olivine and pyroxene. This is not a fourth crustal layer.
The important trend is increasing average mafic character with depth, rather than a change from granite directly to peridotite. Granulite describes a metamorphic facies, not a unique chemical composition. The synthesis in Nature and composition of the continental crust: A lower crustal perspective by Roberta L. Rudnick and David M. Fountain combines seismic and petrological evidence for these distinctions.