Tectono-thermal evolution of ultrahigh-temperature- (UHT-) metamorphic rocks in the Madurai Block of the Southern Granulite Terrane (southern India)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hartwig E. Frimmel
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 220402090

The metamorphic rocks of the Southern Indian Shield are considered as the best archive for geodynamic processes and serve as a valuable tool for the reconstruction of Precambrian crustal evolution in the Indian sub-continent. The Madurai Block constitutes part of the Southern Granulite Terrane in southern India and is made up of a variety of rock types, including mafic granulite, charnockite, sapphirine-bearing granulite, calc-granulite, quarzite, leptynite, gneisses, migmatite, etc. Of particular significance are sapphirine/kornerupine-bearing granulites because they preserve signatures of metamorphic crystallization along the prograde path through arrested textures and are thus potential tools for the derivation of the P-T trajectory of metamorphism. To date, the nature and cause of ultrahigh-temperature- (UHT-) metamorphism in the Madurai Block remain unresolved, with conflicting models of P-T paths presented in the literature. Detailed textural and petrological analyses of arrested reaction textures are planned, in combination with the modeling of pseudosections. Such an approach will yield distinct P-T segments for various evolutionary stages and will thus provide a far more complete description of the geodynamic evolution of this UHT metamorphic complex in particular and will contribute to a better understanding of UHT metamorphic complexes in general.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: India
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Divya Prakash; Professor Dr. Ulrich Schüßler; Professor Dr. Armin Zeh