A suite of Jurassic–Cretaceous migmatites was newly identified in the Liaodong Peninsula of the eastern North China Craton (NCC). Anatexis is commonly associated with crustal thickening. However, the newly identified migmatites were formed during strong lithospheric thinning accompanied by voluminous magmatism and intense deformation. Field investigations show that the migmatites are spatially associated with low-angle detachment faults. Numerous leucosomes occur either as isolated lenses or thin layers (dykes), parallel to or cross-cutting the foliation. Peritectic minerals such as titanite and sillimanite are distributed mainly along the boundaries of reactant minerals or are accumulated along the foliation. Most zircons show distinct core–rim structures, and the rims have low Th/U ratios (0.01–0.24). Zircon U–Pb dating results indicate that the protoliths of the migmatites were either the Late Triassic (224–221 Ma) diorites or metasedimentary rocks deposited sometime after c. 1857 Ma. The zircon overgrowth rims record crystallization ages of 173–161 Ma and 125 Ma, which represent the formation time of leucosomes. These ages are consistent with those reported magmatic events in the Liaodong Peninsula and surrounding areas. The leucosomes indicate a strong anatectic event during the Jurassic–Cretaceous period. Partial melting occurred through the breakdown of muscovite and biotite with the presence of water-rich fluid under a thermal anomaly regime. The possible mechanism that caused the 173–161 Ma and 125 Ma anatectic events was intimately related to the regional crustal extension during the lithospheric thinning of the NCC. Meanwhile, the newly generated melts further weakened the rigidity of the crust and enhanced the extension.

The concentrations of LREE and Zr in a granitic melt formed by anatexis of a metapelitic protolith will be buffered by the stability of monazite and zircon respectively. The rate at which equilibrium is reached between dissolving monazite and zircon and a static melt is limited by the rate at which Zr and LREE can diffuse away from dissolution sites. If melt extraction rates exceed the rates at which the LREE and Zr in the melt become homogenized by diffusion, extracted melts will be undersaturated with respect to these elements. Evidence from accessory phase thermometry suggests that for many Himalayan leucogranites generated by crustal anatexis, the melts equilibrated with restitic monazite and zircon prior to extraction. In contrast, discordant temperatures determined from accessory phase thermometry suggest that tourmaline leucogranites from the Zanskar region of NW India did not equilibrate prior to extraction. Quantitative interpretation of this discordance assumes that the melt was static prior to extraction, and that accessory phase inheritance was minimal. Modelling of the time-dependant homogenization process suggests that tourmaline leucogranites generated at 700°C probably remained in contact with restitic monazite in the protolith for less than 7 ka and certainly less than 50 ka. Such rapid extraction rates suggest that deformation-driven mechanisms were important in removing these melts from their source.

In the Halls Creek Orogen of north-western Australia, the distance of melt migration through migmatitic metasedimentary rocks and adjacent metabasites is partly constrained by relationships of leucosomes and small mafic magma veins to rock boundaries and structural elements. Stromatic leucosomes in metasediments are cut by a network of small extensional fractures and shear zones, oriented steeply during melt migration. These shear zones allowed cm- to 10 m-scale migration of felsic magma derived by in situ anatexis. In the adjacent metabasite layers, a similar shear array allowed injection of H2O-undersaturated mafic to ultramafic magma, locally dehydrating and chemically modifying these rocks. However, these mafic to ultramafic veinlets are too mafic to be explained by in situ anatexis, necessitating an external magma source. Also, the lack of felsic veinlets cutting metabasites, and mafic veinlets cutting metasediments, requires that vertical inter-connectivity of these fracture systems was restricted. We propose along-layer migration of mafic to ultramafic magma through the metabasite, assisted by horizontal connection of the shear zones. This migration occurred independantly of metre-scale felsic magma migration in the adjacent metasediments, even though these two deformation-assisted magma migration systems may have been operating at the same time.

We review the causes, mechanisms and consequences of crustal anatexis during the exhumation of metamorphic terranes, from a petrological perspective. During both prograde and retrograde metamorphism, limited influx of free hydrous fluids may result in small volumes of very hydrous melts, which cannot ascend far (if at all) before reaching their solidus. If thermal conditions for dehydration melting are attained in fertile micaceous crustal layers, much larger volumes of water-undersaturated granitic magmas may result, especially where limited external fluid influx raises water activities above those that may be buffered by dehydrating hydrous phases. Magmas have specific trace element characteristics depending on the reaction which formed them which, combined with accessory phase thermometry, may enable the (P-T) conditions of melting to be ascertained. Small volume-fraction magmas will typically remain as in situ migmatites unless their extraction is assisted by deformation. In turn, deformation will be focused in weaker partially molten zones, so that water-undersaturated magmas may often be mobilized. Once segregated, their ascent is limited by the rate of dyke propagation, and they may reach shallow levels (<2 kbar) before crystallizing. The complex interplay between deformation and melting is exemplified by the Miocene evolution of the central Himalaya, where thrust and normal faulting, melting and exhumation were all simultaneously active processes which were linked by feedback relations. In the Nanga Parbat Massif of the western Himalaya, rapid post-Miocene denudation and vigorous fluid flux enabled rocks to experience more than one episode of melting simultaneously, at different levels of the same exhuming crustal section.

The dacite of El Joyazo contains abundant metapelitic xenoliths. These can be divided into two main types: garnet-biotite-sillimanite and spinel-cordierite xenoliths. In the xenoliths the widespread occurrence of rhyolitic glass as interstitial films, foliation-parallel layers and primary melt inclusions in all mineral phases indicates that these assemblages developed in the presence of a melt phase, i.e. during anatexis. The composition of the interstitial glass is comparable to that of the melt inclusions, suggesting that melt was locally produced. Phase equilibria indicate that anatexis occurred at P-T conditions of 5–7 kbar and 850±50°C.

Several microstructural lines of evidence show that melt extraction was assisted by deformation during foliation development, and that on the scale of the xenoliths (up to 50 cm) melt escaped mainly by flow along foliation planes. The development of a syn-anatectic foliation also suggests that metapelitic rocks were involved in high-grade metamorphism and partial melting prior to fragmentation and dispersion in the host dacite.

Mass balance calculations, based on the chemical composition of interstitial glass and melt inclusions in minerals, the bulk xenoliths and representative samples of potential pelitic sources support a model wherein the xenoliths represent restites after the extraction of 30 to 55 wt.% melt from graphitic metapelite protoliths similar to the rocks constituting the surrounding Alpujarride metamorphic complex.

Garnetiferous pelitic to psammopelitic migmatites widespread across the central and eastern part of the Aravalli–Delhi Fold Belt in NW India record two distinct orogenies, e.g. the Aravalli Orogeny (1.7–1.6 Ga) and the Delhi Orogeny (1.0 Ga). In this study, we integrate field geological studies with textural and mineral–chemical analyses, P–T pseudosection modelling and in situ monazite dating in anatectic migmatites in the Aravalli Supergroup occurring along the Deoli–Shahpura segment. The study reveals formation of peak assemblages of garnet + sillimanite + biotite + K-feldspar + melt and garnet + muscovite + K-feldspar + melt in two anatectic migmatite samples. P–T pseudosection modelling suggests that anatexis in the gneisses occurred at ~8 kbar and 700–800°C along a tight-loop clockwise P–T path. Monazite ages from the migmatites indicate that the anatexis occurred at ~1.73–1.74 Ga. This age is similar to the Palaeoproterozoic anatexis (at 7–8 kbar) and charnockite emplacement in the Sandmata and the Mangalwar complexes, the subsolidus amphibolite-facies metamorphism in the Rajpura–Dariba and Pur–Banera supracrustal belts, and the A-type granite magmatism in the North Delhi Fold Belt. We propose that the Palaeoproterozoic migmatites in central and eastern Rajasthan are part of the one crustal unit that underwent anatexis during an accretion event along the NE–SW-trending Aravalli orogenic belt.

The hot emplacement of the Ronda peridotites (Betic Cordilleras) developed a dynamothermal aureole and partial melts that led to the intrusion of granite dykes in the peridotites. Previous geochronological data place rather broad limits for this event between 22 and 19 Ma. Analyses of neocrystalline zircon rims from large zircon populations yield a U–Pb SHRIMP age of 22.3±0.7 Ma for the dynamothermal aureole formation, and intrusion ages of granite dykes between 22.6±1.8 and 21.5±3.8 support that conclusion. Therefore, these new ages provide a more robust constraint on the hot emplacement of the Ronda peridotites at middle crustal levels.

Regional scale biotite and cordierite-bearing granites (s.l.) in the Variscan of the Central Iberian Zone (CIZ) are spatially closely associated with cordierite-rich nebulites and cordierite-bearing two-mica granites, and with cordierite-rich high grade hornfelses and cordieritites (>60% cordierite) that are relatively common in the aureoles of these granites. Building on published field evidence, petrological data are presented which, combined with new chemical and isotopic (Sr–Nd) modelling, indicate that the cordierite-bearing granites cannot be derived by simple anatexis of regional sedimentary protoliths; but the data are consistent with a process of reactive assimilation that involves the interaction of biotite granite magma with high-grade host rocks ranging from cordierite nebulites to andalusite-bearing cordieritites. The contribution of the postulated cordierite-rich contaminants to the diversity of cordierite granite compositions is modelled using the compositions of regional Lower Cambrian–Upper Neoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks that are generally chemically mature (CaO very rarely exceeds 1·4%). These rocks include specific horizons in which extreme chemical alteration is attributable to sediment reworking during eustatic falls in sea level. Such compositions may account for the presence of the high concentrations in Al that later produced cordieritites. Fractional crystallisation is also important, particularly in generating the more evolved cordierite granite and cordierite biotite muscovite granite compositions. Although assimilation in situ is normally regarded as a minor contributor volumetrically to evolving plutons, in this instance the emplacement of large volumes of granite magma into a high-T–low-P environment significantly increased the potential for reactive assimilation.

Quartz-rich xenoliths hosted in the basaltic–andesitic and andesitic lavas of Monte dei Porri, in the island of Salina, contain fluid and melt inclusions whose study makes it possible to trace back the magma ascent path of this volcano; moreover, they are a source of information about the anatectic processes that occurred under this island. The texture, mineralogy and whole-rock chemistry of these rocks exhibit the typical characteristics of a residual rock which went through several melt extraction events. The chemistry of melt inclusions hosted inside quartz grains (SiO2>72.7%, Al2O3=9.0–13.5%, CaO=0.2–4.3%, K2O>3.1%, MgO, FeOt≤1.5%) supports the hypothesis that a progressive and continuous anatectic processes affected a peraluminous high-grade metamorphic rock (gneiss or micaschist), that constituted the Calabro–Peloritani basement and generated a quartz-bearing residue. The fluids trapped inside these inclusions are rarely composed of high-density CO2, with a homogenization temperature to liquid phase (ThL) within the range 26.2–31.0°C, corresponding to densities of 520 to 690 kg/m3. More commonly, they are made up of low-density CO2, with a homogenization temperature to vapour phase (ThV) within the range 13.2–31.0°C, corresponding to density values of 150 to 460 kg/m3. It is proposed that, during ascent, batches of magma rising from the mantle sampled various fragments of a residual rock from a depleted metamorphic basal layer and carried them to the surface. Magmas probably stopped inside at least two distinct reservoirs located at different depths (≤12.7 km and between 1.7 and 4.7 km), in which they underwent fractional crystallization. The ascent speed of the xenolith-bearing magmas from the deeper storage area to the shallower reservoir was fairly high, as confirmed by the low number of high-density fluid inclusions preserved that show re-equilibration features, and by the contemporaneous presence of denser cumulitic Ol+Cpx±Opx xenoliths in the host lava.

Three granitoid types are recognised in the Famatinian magmatic belt of NW Argentina, based on lithology and new geochemical data: (a) a minor trondhjemite–tonalite–granodiorite (TTG) group, (b) a metaluminous I-type gabbro-monzogranite suite, and (c) S-type granites. The latter occur as small cordieritic intrusions associated with 1-type granodiorites and as abundant cordierite-bearing facies in large batholithic masses. Twelve new SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages establish the contemporaneity of all three types in Early Ordovician times (mainly 470-490 Ma ago). Sr- and Nd-isotopic data suggest that, apart from some TTG plutons of asthenospheric origin, the remaining magmas were derived from a Proterozoic crust-lithospheric mantle section. Trace element modelling suggests that the TTG originated by variable melting of a depleted gabbroid source at 10-12kbar, and the I-type tonalite-granodiorite suite by melting of a more enriched lithospheric source at c. 5 kbar. The voluminous intermediate and acidic I-types involved hybridisation with lower and middle crustal melts. The highly peraluminous S-type granites have isotopic and inherited zircon patterns similar to those of Cambrian supracrustal metasedimentary rocks deposited in the Pampean cycle, and were derived from them by local anatexis. Other major components of the S-type batholiths involved melting of deep crust and mixing with the I-type magmas, leading to an isotopic and geochemical continuum.

To form a granite pluton, the felsic melt produced by partial melting of the middle and lower continental crust must separate from its source and residuum. This can happen in three ways: (1) simple melt segregation, where only the melt fraction moves; (2) magma mobility, in which all the melt and residuum move together; and (3) magma mobility with melt segregation, in which the melt and residuum move together as a magma, but become separated during flow. The first mechanism applies to metatexite migmatites and the other two to diatexite migmatites, but the primary driving forces for each are deviatoric stresses related to regional-scale deformation. Neither of the first two mechanisms generates parental granite magmas. In the first mechanism segregation is so effective that the resulting magmas are too depleted in FeOT, MgO, Rb, Zr, Th and the REEs, and in the second no segregation occurs. Only the third mechanism produces magmas with compositions comparable with parental granites, and occurs at a large enough scale in the highest grade parts of migmatite terranes, to be considered representative of the segregation processes occurring in the source regions of granites.

It should be possible to infer the thermal state of the source terrane for granitic bodies, provided we have independent means to establish the chemical nature of this terrane. The chemical nature of the granitic rocks, including their degree of hydration, implies the solidus temperature. The concentration of the heat-producing radioactive elements in the granite (K, U, and Th) probably provides an upper estimate of their concentration in the source rock, which is an important thermal parameter. The depth and ambient temperature of the country rock into which the granite magma intruded provide useful boundary conditions for the thermal regime at the crustal level of anatexis. These constraints in turn form the bases for estimating the subcrustal thermal flux as well as the effective thermal interface for enhanced heat flow from below that resulted in anatexis. These inferences, in combination with other field-based parameters such as uplift rates and permissible time lapses for the geological events, permit realistic thermal modelling for the formation of granitic batholiths. The procedure is applied to the Late Cretaceous Pioneer and Boulder batholiths in southwestern Montana, U.S.A. The modelling results suggest that mantle upwelling, not subduction or thrust loading, caused anatexis. The isotopic chemistry of the granitic rocks rules out direct mixing of mantle magma, and field relations rule out crustal thinning as causes for partial melting.

Like many granites, the Late Cretaceous intrusives of the eastern Mojave Desert, California, have heretofore provided useful but poorly focused images of their source regions. New studies of lower crustal xenoliths and inherited accessory minerals are sharpening these images.

Xenoliths in Tertiary dykes in this region are the residues of an extensive partial melting event. Great diversity in their composition reflects initial heterogeneity (both igneous and sedimentary protoliths) and varying amounts of melt extraction (from <10% to >70%). Mineral assemblages and thermobarometry suggest that the melting event occurred at T ≥ 750°C at a depth of about 40 km. Present-day Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic ratios indicate a Mojave Proterozoic heritage, but unrealistic model ages demonstrate the late Phanerozoic adjustment of parent/daughter ratios. A link between these xenoliths and the Late Cretaceous granites, though not fully documented, is probable; in any case, they provide invaluable clues concerning a crustal melting event, recording information about nature of source material (heterogeneous, supracrustal-rich), conditions of melting (moderately deep, moderately high T, accompanied by partial dehydration), and melt extraction (highly variable, locally extensive).

The Old Woman-Piute granites contain a large fraction of inherited zircon and monazite. A SHRIMP ion probe investigation shows that these zircons record a Proterozoic history similar to that which affected the Mojave region. Zonation patterns in zircons, and to a lesser extent monazites and xenotimes, document multiple phases of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary growth and degradation, commonly several in a single grain. Low Y in portions of the cores of inherited zircons and monazites and in monazites and outer portions of zircons from the xenoliths appear to indicate growth in equilibrium with abundant garnet.