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Continental rifts as a setting for regional metamorphism

Nature volume 318, pages 330–333 (1985)Cite this article

Abstract

During very high-temperature/low-pressure Hercynian metamorphism in the Pyrenees the crust began to melt at ∼12 km and stable isotopes show that it was flushed by circulating seawater to that depth. There is no evidence for crustal collision and the tectonic setting for this, and maybe all high-temperature/low-pressure metamorphism, is a zone of continental rifting.

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Author notes

  1. Stephen M. Wickham

    Present address: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 91125, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK

    Stephen M. Wickham & E. Ronald Oxburgh

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  1. Stephen M. Wickham
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  2. E. Ronald Oxburgh
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Wickham, S., Oxburgh, E. Continental rifts as a setting for regional metamorphism. Nature 318, 330–333 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/318330a0

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