P-T-t Evolution of Ultrahigh-Temperature Granulites from the Saxon Granulite Massif, Germany. Part I: Petrology

The granulites of the Saxon Granulite Massif equilibrated athigh pressure and ultrahigh temperature and were exhumed inlarge part under near-isothermal decompression. This raisesthe question of whether P–T–t data on the peak metamorphismmay still be retrieved with confidence. Felsic and mafic granuliteswith geochronologically useful major and accessory phases haveprovided a basis to relate P–T estimates with isotopicages presented in a companion paper. The assemblage garnet +clinopyroxene in mafic granulite records peak temperatures of1010–1060°C, consistent with minimum estimates ofaround 967°C and 22·3 kbar obtained from the assemblagegarnet + kyanite + ternary feldspar + quartz in felsic granulite.Multiple partial overprint of these assemblages reflects a clockwiseP–T evolution. Garnet and kyanite in the felsic granulitewere successively overgrown by plagioclase, spinel + plagioclase,sapphirine + plagioclase, and biotite + plagioclase. Most ofthis overprinting occurred within the stability field of sillimanite.Garnet + clinopyroxene in the mafic granulite were replacedby clinopyroxene + amphibole + plagioclase + magnetite. Thehigh P–T conditions and the absence of thermal relaxationfeatures in these granulites require a short-lived metamorphismwith rapid exhumation. The ages of peak metamorphism (342 Ma)and shallow-level granitoid intrusions (333 Ma) constrain thetime span for the exhumation of the Saxon granulites to