Carboniferous eclogite and garnet–omphacite granulite from northeastern Hainan Island,South China: Implications for the evolution of the eastern Palaeo‐Tethys

High‐P (HP) eclogite and associated garnet–omphacite granulite have recently been discovered in the Mulantou area, northeastern Hainan Island, South China. These rocks consist mainly of garnet, omphacite, hornblende, quartz and rutile/ilmenite, with or without zoisite and plagioclase. Textural relationships, mineral compositions and thermobarometric calculations demonstrate that the eclogite and garnet–omphacite granulite share the same three‐stage metamorphic evolution, with prograde, peak and retrograde P?T conditions of 620–680°C and 8.7–11.1 kbar, 820–860°C and 17.0–18.2 kbar, and 700–730°C and 7.1–8.5 kbar respectively. Sensitive high‐resolution ion microprobe U–Pb zircon dating, coupled with the identification of mineral inclusions in zircon, reveals the formation of mafic protoliths before 355 Ma, prograde metamorphism at c. 340–330 Ma, peak to retrograde metamorphism at c. 310–300 Ma, and subsequent pegmatite intrusion at 295 Ma. Trace element geochemistry shows that most of the rocks have a MORB affinity, with initial ε_Nd values of +2.4 to +6.7. As with similar transitional eclogite–HP granulite facies rocks in the thickened root in the European Variscan orogen, the occurrence of relatively high P?T metamorphic rocks of oceanic origin in northeastern Hainan Island suggests Carboniferous oceanic subduction leading to collision of the Hainan continental block, or at least part of it, with the South China Block in the eastern Palaeo‐Tethyan tectonic domain.