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International Book Series, volume 4.

Collisional belts that retain the effects of Phanerozoic ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphism are increasingly being recognized, especially in Eurasia. Neighboring regions generally lack evidence of coeval arc volcanism/plutonism. Following the consumption of intervening oceanic lithosphere, each UHP orogen marks the site of astonishingly deep subduction of a microcontinental promontory or island arc-fragments. Mafic and ultramafic rocks are volumetrically minor in such belts. Maximum recorded pressures in UHP complexes approach or even exceed 2.8 GPa at temperatures of 600-900 °C. Subduction zones involve low-T prograde trajectories, and constitute the only plate-tectonic environment where such conditions exist. Internal portions of descending lithospheric plates may be characterized by yet lower geothermal gradients, but the crustal upper margins are typified by less extreme high-P, low-T paths of 5-10 °C/km. Mineral parageneses, physical conditions of recrystallization, and the tectonics of subduction and exhumation are thoroughly documented in this volume. Extensional collapse and erosion of rising sialic masses evidently aid in the continued ascent of deeply subducted but buoyant material. Surviving UHP terranes consist of relatively thin slabs of continental crust. Slices evidently rose to midcrustal levels rapidly at remarkably high exhumation rates-approaching or exceeding 10 mm/yr. Back reaction attending decompression in all cases was nearly complete; where UHP relics have persisted, retrogression evidently was limited by declining temperatures, coarse grain size of host minerals, and relative impermeability of the rocks to catalytic aqueous fluids. Clearly, UHP terranes provide important new constraints on the origin and tectonic evolution of collisional mountain belts.