Thermodynamic modelling of metamorphic processes: State of the art in pseudosection approach

Abstract

Understanding global-scale orogenic processes related to supercontinents, and their relationship to the secular evolution of the Earth's lithosphere, represent important challenges for Earth scientists today. The record of these processes is preserved in the microstructures, mineral assemblages and mineral compositions of lithospheric rocks exhumed to the Earth's surface. Given a well-characterized microstructural evolution, thermodynamic modelling is the key to quantifying changes in pressure and temperature, with the rate of these changes being provided by rock-forming and accessory mineral-based geochronology. Thus, metamorphic rocks provide Pressure-Temperature-time-deformation (P-T-t-d) data that help to parameterize orogenic processes.