Many of the late Paleozoic granitoid plutons of the southern Appalachians are composite bodies with coarsegrained amphibole + biotite and biotite varietal facies (Speer et al., 1980). From field relations, these facies appear closely related, and multiple intrusion or differentiation comes to mind as an explanation for the relationship. In the Liberty Hill pluton, the coarse-grained central amp...

Based mainly on field geological observation and geochronologic data, six tectonic units have been recognized in western Inner Mongolia (China), including, from south to north: North China Craton (NCC), Southern Orogenic Belt (SOB), Hunshandake Block (HB), Northern Orogenic Belt (NOB), South Mongolia microcontinent (SMM), and Southern margin of Ergun Block (SME), suggesting that the tectonic fr...

During the Cretaceous, the South China Block (SCB) experienced a widely distributed extensional event including numerous plutons emplacement and basin opening. Investigations on the tectonic regime coeval with pluton emplacement, and emplacement mechanism of the pluton remain relatively rare in the SCB. In order to address these questions, a multidisciplinary approach, including field structura...

Metamorphic coesite and diamond in the Dabie Shan, eastern China, testify to subduction of continental crust to >100 km depth. Exhumation of these ultrahigh-pressure rocks through the crust encompassed two stages. (1) South-dipping foliation, southeastplunging stretching lineation, lineation-parallel isoclinal folds, and boudins indicate extreme subhorizontal shortening and subvertical extensio...