Franciscan eclogite revisited: Reevaluation of the P–T evolution of tectonic blocks from Tiburon Peninsula, California, U.S.A.

Summary High-grade blocks in the Franciscan complex at Tiburon, California, record relatively low temperature eclogite-facies metamorphism and blueschist-facies overprinting. The eclogite-facies mineral assemblage contains prograde-zoned garnet + omphacite + epidote ± hornblende (katophoritic and barroisitic Ca–Na amphibole) ± glaucophane + phengite (∼3.5 Si p.f.u.) ± paragonite + rutile + quartz. The blueschist-facies mineral assemblage contains chlorite + titanite + glaucophane + epidote ± albite ± phengite (∼3.3 Si p.f.u.). Albite is not stable in the eclogite stage. New calculations based on garnet-omphacite-phengite thermobarometry and THERMOCALC average-P–T calculations yield peak eclogite-facies P–T conditions of P = 2.2–2.5 GPa and T = 550–620 °C; porphyroclastic omphacite with inclusions of garnet and paragonite yields an average-P–T of 1.8 ± 0.2 GPa at 490 ± 70 °C for the pre-peak stage. The inferred counterclockwise hairpin P–T trajectory suggests prograde eclogitization of a relatively “cold” subducting slab, and subsequent exhumation and blueschist-facies recrystallization by a decreasing geotherm. Although an epidote-garnet amphibolitic assemblage is ubiquitous in some blocks, P–T pseudosection analyses imply that the epidote-garnet amphibolitic assemblage is stable during prograde eclogite-facies metamorphism. Available geochronologic data combined with our new insight for the maximum pressure suggest an average exhumation rate of ∼5 km/Ma, as rapid as those of some ultrahigh pressure metamorphic terranes.