Most granites result from partial melting within the crust. Granite melts produced at the lowest temperatures of partial melting mainly comprise close to equal amounts of the haplogranite components Qz, Ab and Or, with H2O. Many felsic granites were formed by partial melting under such conditions and are low-temperature types, with crystals of zircon and other restite minerals present in the initial magma. Such magmas evolve in composition, at least initially, through fractionation of that restite. If one of the four haplogranite components either becomes depleted or too low in amount to contribute further to the melt, then melting may proceed to higher temperatures without a contribution from that component. Melting will advance to significantly higher temperatures if there is a critical deficiency in one or more components and a high-temperature granite magma forms, in which zircon is completely soluble. Such magmas are extracted from the source in a completely molten state and may evolve by fractional crystallisation. They are monzonitic, tonalitic or A-type, depending on whether the critical deficiency occurred in the Qz, Or or H2O component. If the Ab component is critically deficient, as in pelitic rocks, the rocks may be infertile for granite production. The control that source rock compositions exert on both the physical and chemical properties of granite magmas provides a unifying element in granite gen

Ideas about granite generation have evolved considerably during the past two decades. The present paper lists the ideas which were accepted and later modified concerning the processes acting during the four stages of granite generation: melting, melt segregation and ascent, and emplacement. The active role of the mantle constitutes a fifth stage.

Fluid-assisted melting, deduced from metamorphic observations, was used to explain granite and granulite formation. Water seepage into meta-sedimentary rocks can produce granitic melt by decreasing melting temperature. CO2 released by the mantle helps to transform rocks into granulites. However, dehydration melting is now considered to be the origin of most granitic melts, as confirmed by experimental melting. Hydrous minerals are involved, beginning with muscovites, followed by biotite at higher temperatures. At even deeper conditions, hornblende dehydration melting leads to calc-alkaline magmas.

Melt segregation was first attributed to compaction and gravity forces caused by the density contrast between melt and its matrix. This was found insufficient for magma segregation in the continental crust because magmas were transposed from mantle conditions (decompression melting) to crustal conditions (dehydration melting). Rheology of two-phase materials requires that melt segregation is discontinuous in time, occurring in successive bursts. Analogue and numerical models confirm the discontinuous melt segregation. Compaction and shear localisation interact non-linearly, so that melt segregates into tiny conduits. Melt segregation occurs at a low degree of melting.

Global diapiric ascent and fractional crystallisation in large convective batholiths have also been shown to be inadequate and at least partly erroneous. Diapiric ascent cannot overcome the crustal brittle-ductile transition. Fracture-induced ascent influences the neutral buoyancy level at which ascent should stop but does not. Non-random orientation of magma feeders within the ambient stress field indicates that deformation controls magma ascent.

Detailed gravity and structural analyses indicate that granite plutons are built from several magma injections, each of small size and with evolving chemical composition. Detailed mapping of the contact between successive magma batches documents either continuous feeding, leading to normal petrographic zoning, or over periods separated in time, commonly leading to reverse zoning. The local deformation field controls magma emplacement and influences the shape of plutons.

A typical source for granite magmas involves three components from the mantle, lower and intermediate crusts. The role of the mantle in driving and controlling essential crustal processes appears necessary in providing stress and heat, as well as specific episodes of time for granite generation. These mechanisms constitute a new paradigm for granite generation.

The redox state variation of orogenic granitoids along convergent plate margins is examined in the Phanerozoic Circum-Pacific Belt and in some Cryptozoic terranes. The Phanerozoic granitoids of the NW and NE Pacific Rims can be divided into reduced ilmenite series occurring in the accretionary terranes with compressional tectonic setting, and oxidised magnetite series intruding crystalline basements under extensional to intermediate regional stress regime. The ilmenite-series granitoids have negative but the magnetite series have positive δ34S values, which show a positive correlation with magnetic susceptibility of the granitoids. The negative δ34S sulphur originated in biogenic sulphur from accreted pelitic sediments and positive δ34S values show that sulphate sulphur migrated from seawater through subduction processes. The whole rock δ18O values are higher than 8 permil in the ilmenite series, but lower than 8 permil in the magnetite series, and as a whole show negative correlation with the magnetic susceptibility of the granitoids. The higher δ18O values reflect those of accreted sediments, whilst the lower δ18O values represent magmatic values of an oxidised mafic protolith at depth.

The predominance of ilmenite-series granitoids of the NW Pacific rim can be explained by well-developed accretionary terranes in which mafic magmas from depth mingled with felsic magmas from the accretionary complex to form granodioritic magmas, whilst that of magnetite-series granitoids is postulated to be oxidised igneous sources for the magma generation and an extensional and/or intermediate tectonic setting for the magma ascent. The absence of the accretionary wedges by tectonic erosion and/or no fore-arc sedimentation also helped to form magnetite-series granitoids. Potassic granitoids are generally of oxidised type. A-type granites in late orogenic environments also belong to the magnetite series. Adakitic high-Sr/Y granitoids are oxidised in the Mesozoic–Cenozoic but are reduced in the Archaean TTG, reflecting the redox state of the then-current sea-floor environment. The oldest magnetite-series granite so far known is the 3105 Ma-old biotite granite of the Nelspruit batholith, South Africa.

Melt extraction is a process with a length scale that spans many orders of magnitude. Studies of residual migmatites and granulites suggest that melt has migrated from grain boundaries to networks of leucosome-filled structures to steeply inclined cylindrical or tabular granites inferred to have infilled ascent conduits. For example, in anatectic rocks from southern Brittany, France, during decompression-induced biotite-breakdown melting, melt is inferred to have been expressed from foliation-parallel structures analogous to compaction bands to dilation and shear bands, based on location of residual leucosome, and from this network of structures to ascent conduits, preserved as dykes of granite. The leucosome-filled deformation band network is elongated parallel to a sub-horizontal lineation, suggesting that mesoscale melt flow was focused primarily in the plane of the foliation along the lineation to developing dilatant transverse structures. The leucosome network connects with petrographic continuity to granite in dykes; however, the orientation of dykes discordant to fabric anisotropy suggests that their formation was controlled by stress, which indicates that the process is a fracture phenomenon. Blunt fracture tips and zigzag propagation paths indicate that the dykes represent ductile opening-mode fractures; these are postulated to have formed by coalescence of melt pockets. The structures record a transition from accumulation to draining; quantitative volume fluxes are calculated and presented for the generalised extraction process. The anatectic system may have converged to a critical state at some combination of melt fraction and melt distribution that enabled formation of ductile opening-mode fractures, but fractal distribution of inferred mesoscale melt-filled structures has not been demonstrated; this may reflect the inherent anisotropy and/or residual nature of the drained source. Melt extraction has been modelled as a self-organised critical phenomenon, but the mechanism of extraction is not described and the relationship between these models and the spatial and temporal granularity of lower continental crust is not addressed. Self-organised critical phenomena are driven systems involving ‘avalanches’ with a fractal frequency-size distribution; thus, the distribution of melt batch sizes might be expected to be fractal, but this has not yet been demonstrated in nature.

The common association of mid-crustal migmatites with an upper-level granite pluton could indicate that the migmatites are a feeder zone for the pluton. If magma from a deeper level pervasively intrudes a high temperature metamorphic complex, most of the intruded magma would not freeze because of the prevailing temperature. The interaction between the magma and country rocks, which could include partial melting and crystallisation of the magma passing through, would modify magma to a more granitic composition, as found in the higher-level pluton.

The physical aspect of the magma transport through such a hot feeder zone is modelled by introducing a dimensionless melt transport (MT) number, which is the ratio of the rate of melt movement caused by the bulk flow of the entire mass (melt+solid) to that of porous media flow of melt only through the solid framework. The MT number is strongly dependent on the melt content of the melt-rich zone (MRZ), the diameter of the MRZ and typical particle size in the MRZ.

The ∼300-Ma, diatexitic, Lauterbrunnen migmatites (LM) in the Aar massif, Swiss Alps, may be such a feeder zone for the nearby 303-Ma Gastern granite (GG). The chemical and field evidence indicates that the LM formed by an intrusion of intermediate composition magma, which interacted with country rocks to produce a magma of GG composi

Viscosities of liquid albite (NaAlSi3O8) and a Himalayan leucogranite were measured near the glass transition at a pressure of one atmosphere for water contents of 0, 2·8 and 3·4 wt.%. Measured viscosities range from 1013·8 Pa. s at 935 K to 109·0 Pa. s at 1119 K for anhydrous granite, and from 1010·2 Pa. s at 760 K to 1012·9 Pa. s at 658 K for granite containing 3·4 wt.% H2O. The leucogranite is the first naturally occurring liquid composition to be investigated over the wide range of T-X(H2O) conditions which may be encountered in both plutonic and volcanic settings. At typical magmatic temperatures of 750°C, the viscosity of the leucogranite is 1011·0 Pa. s for the anhydrous liquid, dropping to 106·5 Pa. s for a water content of 3 wt.% H2O. For the same temperature, the viscosity of liquid NaAlSi3O8 is reduced from 1012·2 to 106·3 Pa. s by the addition of 1·9 wt.% H2O. Combined with published high-temperature viscosity data, these results confirm that water reduces the viscosity of NaAlSi3O8 liquids to a much greater degree than that of natural leucogranitic liquids. Furthermore, the viscosity of NaAlSi3O8 liquid becomes substantially nonArrhenian at water contents as low as 1 wt.% H2O, while that of the leucogranite appears to remain close to Arrhenian to at least 3 wt.% H2O, and viscosity–temperature relationships for hydrous leucogranites must be nearly Arrhenian over a wide range of temperature and viscosity. Therefore, the viscosity of hydrous NaAlSi3O8 liquid does not provide a good model for natural granitic or rhyolitic liquids, especially at lower temperatures and water contents.

Qualitatively, the differences can be explained in terms of configurational entropy theory because the addition of water should lead to higher entropies of mixing in simple model compositions than in complex natural compositions. This hypothesis also explains why the water reduces magma viscosity to a larger degree at low temperatures, and is consistent with published viscosity data for hydrous liquid compositions ranging from NaAlSi3O8 and synthetic haplogranites to natural samples. Therefore, predictive models of magma viscosity need to account for compositional variations in more detail than via simple approximations of the degree of polymerisation of the melt structure.

Leucogranites are typical products of collisional orogenies. They are found in orogenic terranes of different ages, including the Proterozoic Trans-Hudson orogen, as exemplified in the Black Hills, South Dakota, and the Appalachian orogen in Maine, both in the USA, and the ongoing Himalayan orogen. Characteristics of these collisional leucogranites show that they were derived from predominantly pelitic sources at the veining stages of deformation and metamorphism in upper plates of thickened crusts. Once generated, the leucogranite magmas ascended as dykes and were emplaced within shallower parts of their source sequences. In these orogenic belts, there was a strong connection between deformation, metamorphism and granite generation. However, the heat sources needed for partial melting of the source rocks remain controversial. Lack of evidence for significant intrusion of mafic magmas necessary to cause melting of upper plate source rocks suggests that leucogranite generation in collisional orogens is mainly a crustal process.

The present authors evaluate five types of thermal models which have previously been proposed for generating leucogranites in collisional orogens. The first, a thickened crust with exponentially decaying distribution of heat-producing radioactive isotopes with depth, has been shown to be insufficient for heating the upper crust to melting conditions. Four other models capable of raising the crustal temperatures sufficiently to initiate partial melting of metapelites in thickened crust include: (1) thick sequences of sedimentary rocks with high amounts of internal radioactive heat production; (2) decompression melting; (3) thinning of mantle lithosphere; and (4) shear-heating. The authors show that, for reasonable boundary conditions, shear-heating along crustal-scale shear zones is the most viable process to induce melting in upper plates of collisional orogens where pelitic source lithologies are usually located. The shear-heating model directly links partial melting to the deformation and metamorphism that typically precede leucogranite genera

Experimentally constrained calibrations of the incorporation of H2 O and CO2 into cordierite as functions of P–T-aH2O-aCO2 are integrated with KFMASH grids which define mineral-melt equilibria in pelites. This is used to explore the impact of the volatile content and composition of cordierite on anatexis and melt-related processes in high-temperature (HT) and ultra-high-temperature (UHT) metamorphism. The strongly temperature-sensitive H2O content of cordierite coexisting with dehydration melts (0·4–1·6 wt.%) causes a 10–25% relative decrease in the amount of melt produced from pelites compared with models which treat cordierite as anhydrous.

KFMASH melting grids quantified for aH2O demonstrate consistency between the measured H2O contents in cordierite from granulite-migmatite terrains and mineral equilibria. These indicate anatexis with aH2O in the range 0·26–0·16 at 6–8 kbar and 870–930°C. The pressure-stability of cordierite+garnet with respect to orthopyroxene+sillimanite+quartz in KFMASH is strongly influenced by cordierite H2O content, which decreases from 1·1 to 0·5 wt.% along the melting reaction Grt+CrdH+Kfs=Opx+Sil+Qz+L. The lower-T invariant point involving biotite (8·8 kbar/900°C) that terminates this reaction has aH2O of 0·16±0·03, whereas the higher-T terminating invariant point involving osumilite (7·9 kbar/940°C) occurs at aH2O 0·08±0·02. Osumilite-bearing assemblages in UHT terrains imply aH2O of <0·08, and at 950–1000°C and 8–9 kbar calculated aH2O is only 0·04–0·02. Cordierites stable in osumilite-bearing assemblages or with sapphirine+quartz have maximum predicted H2O contents of ca. 0·2 wt.%, consistent with H2O measured in cordierites from two sapphirine-bearing UHT samples from the Napier Complex.

The addition of CO2to the H2O-undersaturated (dehydration-melting) system marginally decreases the temperature of melting because of the stabilisation of cordierite, the solid product of the peritectic melting reactions. The preferential incorporation of CO2 enhances the stability of cordierite, even at fixed aH2O, and causes the stability fields of Grt+Crd+Sil+Kfs+Qz+L and Grt+Opx+Crd+Kfs+Qz+L to expand to higher pressure, and to both higher and lower temperatures. The minimum solubility of H2O in granitic melt is independent of the CO2 content of cordierite, and the distribution of H2O between melt and cordierite is similar at a given melt H2O-content to the H2O-only system. This enhanced stability of CO2-bearing cordierite leads to a reduced stability range for osumilite-bearing assemblages to temperatures of ca. 950–975°C or greater. Cordierites in the Napier Complex UHT gneisses contain 0·5 and 1·05 wt.% CO2, consistent with a role for CO2 in stabilising cordierite with respect to osumilite in these unusual sapphirine-bearing granul

Textural relations and chemical zoning of cordierites in granites act as sensitive recorders of the conditions of their crystallisation history and underlying magma chamber processes. In this contribution, we present new data on texturally distinct and variably zoned cordierites from the late-Devonian, granitic South Mountain and Musquodoboit Batholiths, and infer the conditions of their formation. Using a combined textural (grain size, grain shape and inclusion relationships) and chemical (major element composition and compositional zoning) classification, we recognise the following six cordierite types: CG1/TT1, anhedral to subhedral macrocrysts with random inclusions and patchy normal zoning; CG2a/TT2, euhedral to subhedral macrocrysts with random inclusions and normal zoning; CG2b/TT2, euhedral to subhedral macrocrysts with random or oriented inclusions, and oscillatory zoning; CG3a/TT3, subhedral to euhedral microcrysts with no inclusions and reverse zoning; CG3b/TT4, euhedral macrocrysts with no inclusions and no zoning; and CG4/TT5, anhedral macrocrysts with random inclusions and normal zoning. The textural criteria suggest that these cordierites formed as a product of cotectic crystallisation from a melt, or as the result of a peritectic reaction involving country-rock material. The combined chemical and textural criteria suggest that: (1) normal zoning results from cotectic crystallisation during cooling, cotectic overgrowths on grains formed in a peritectic reaction with country-rock material, or cation exchange with a fluid; (2) oscillatory zoning results from cotectic crystallisation during variations in XMg of the silicate melt following magma replenishment; (3) reverse zoning results from crystallisation during pressure quenching; and (4) the unzoned cordierite results from cotectic crystallisation under fluid-rich conditions.

The mode of occurrence of borosilicates and the breakdown fronts of prograde tourmaline (tourmaline-out isograd) in three anatectic migmatite regions of the Ryoke metamorphic belt, SW Japan, are reported. The breakdown of tourmaline in the migmatite zones and release of boron into the melts, followed by the extraction of the boron-bearing melts from the migmatite zones occurred throughout the Ryoke metamorphic belt. Retrograde, magmatic tourmaline in interboudin partitions filled with leucosome is useful for calculating the degree of partial melting in the migmatites. Using boron contents in the leucosomes and pelitic schists, the degree of partial melting at the migmatite front of the Aoyama area is estimated to be 12 wt.%. Extraction of the boron-bearing melt is suggested by the boron-depleted nature of the migmatites. Connection of boudinage structures probably supplied the vertical pathways of the segregated melts, and major transport of the melts was accomplished by dyking. Irregularly shaped, amoeboid tourmaline locally occurs on the high-temperature side of the tourmaline-out isograds in the Yanai and Komagane areas, implying incomplete extraction of boron-bearing melts from those areas. Discriminating retrograde from prograde tourmaline enables correct recognition of the tourmaline-out isograd. The amount of retrograde tourmaline in migmatites can potentially be used as an indicator of the degree of melt extraction from them.

I-type granites can be assigned to low- and high-temperature groups. The distinction between those groups is formally based on the presence or absence of inherited zircon in relatively mafic rocks of a suite containing less than about 68% SiO2, and shown in many cases by distinctive patterns of compositional variation. Granites of the low-temperature group formed at relatively low magmatic temperatures by the partial melting dominantly of the haplogranite components Qz, Ab and Or in H2O-bearing crustal source rocks. More mafic granites of this type have that character because they contain restite minerals, often including inherited zircon, which were entrained in a more felsic melt. In common with other elements, Zr contents correlate linearly with SiO2, except sometimes in very felsic rocks, and Zr generally decreases as the rocks become more felsic. All S-type granites are apparently low-temperature in origin. After most or all of the restite has been removed from the magma, these granites may evolve further by fractional crystallisation. High-temperature granites formed from a magma that was completely or largely molten, in which zircon crystals were not initially present because the melt was not saturated in that mineral. High-temperature suites commonly evolved compositionally through fractional crystallisation and they may extend to much more mafic compositions through the production of cumulate rocks. However, it is probable that, in some cases, the compositional differences within high-temperature suites arose from varying degrees of partial melting of similar source rocks. Volcanic equivalents of both groups exist and show analogous differences. There are petrographic differences between the two groups and significant mineralisation is much more likely to be associated with the high-temperature granites. The different features of the two groups relate to distinctive source rock compositions. Low-temperature granites were derived from source rocks in which the haplogranite components were present throughout partial melting, whereas the source materials of the high-temperature granites were deficient in one of those components, which therefore, became depleted during the melting, causing the temperatures of melting to rise.

The prominent felsic granulites in the southern part of the Bohemian Massif (Gföhl Unit, Moldanubian Zone), with the Variscan (∼340 Ma) high-pressure and high-temperature assemblage garnet+quartz+hypersolvus feldspar ± kyanite, correspond geochemically to slightly peraluminous, fractionated granitic rocks. Compared to the average upper crust and most granites, the U, Th and Cs concentrations are strongly depleted, probably because of the fluid and/or slight melt loss during the high-grade metamorphism (900–1050°C, 1·5–2·0 GPa). However, the rest of the trace-element contents and variation trends, such as decreasing Sr, Ba, Eu, LREE and Zr with increasing SiO2 and Rb, can be explained by fractional crystallisation of a granitic magma. Low Zr and LREE contents yield ∼750°C zircon and monazite saturation temperatures and suggest relatively low-temperature crystallisation. The granulites contain radiogenic Sr (87Sr/86Sr340 = 0·7106–0·7706) and unradiogenic Nd ( = − 4·2 to − 7·5), indicating derivation from an old crustal source. The whole-rock Rb–Sr isotopic system preserves the memory of an earlier, probably Ordovician, isotopic equilibrium.

Contrary to previous studies, the bulk of felsic Moldanubian granulites do not appear to represent separated, syn-metamorphic Variscan HP–HT melts. Instead, they are interpreted as metamorphosed (partly anatectic) equivalents of older, probably high-level granites subducted to continental roots during the Variscan collision. Protolith formation may have occurred within an Early Palaeozoic rift setting, which is documented throughout the Variscan Zone in Europe.

The high-dT/dP-type Hidaka Metamorphic Belt in Hokkaido, northern Japan, represents a tilted crustal section of a magmatic arc of Tertiary age. The highest metamorphic grades reached are granulite facies, and the syn-metamorphic granitic rocks are widely distributed in this metamorphic terrane. The granitic rocks are mainly tonalitic and granodioritic in composition, and are classified into peraluminous (S-type) and metaluminous (I-type) granitoids. A large amount of pyroxene-bearing S-type tonalites (garnet-orthopyroxene tonalite) is distributed in the Niikappu river region in the northern part of the Hidaka Metamorphic Belt. Pyroxene-bearing I-type tonalite (two-pyroxene hornblende tonalite) bodies are also distributed in this area.

The pyroxene-bearing tonalites are classified into several sub-types on the basis of their field occurrence, texture, mineral assemblage and geochemical features. Homogeneous IH- and SH-type tonalite are thought to represent original magmas, i.e. those which have been generated by partial melting of mafic metamorphic rocks and pelitic-psammitic metamorphic rocks, respectively. Model calculations assuming batch partial melting indicate that possible restites are garnet-two-pyroxene mafic granulite for IH-type and garnet-orthopyroxene aluminous granulite for SH-type. The unexposed lowermost crust of the ‘Hidaka crust’ is thought to be composed of garnet-two-pyroxene mafic granulite, garnet-orthopyroxene aluminous granulite and metagabbros.

The exposed Precambrian cratonic crust in South Korea is divided into two massifs – the Gyeonggi massif to the north and the Yeongnam massif to the south. Mesozoic granites intruded into both massifs and are mostly I-types. The Jurassic granites form extensive deep-seated batholiths, the Triassic granites are deep-seated stocks and the Cretaceous granites occur as volcanic-plutonic complexes.

The systematic variation of εNd and SrI in the Korean Mesozoic granites could result from the mixing of two components in different proportions to produce the source of the granites. Although most Mesozoic I-type granites were apparently derived from more juvenile crust, the old evolved crustal components seem to have been incorporated in the magmas in various proportions. Mantle–crust mixing can account for the generation of the source of the Triassic and Cretaceous granites in the Gyeongsang basin. On the other hand, crust–crust mixing can feasibly produce the source of the Triassic and Jurassic granites in the Yeongnam massif, the Jurassic granites in the Gyeonggi massif, and the Cretaceous granites in the Yeongdong–Gwangju basin and the Okcheon belt. However, some Jurassic granites in the Yeongnam massif and Cretaceous granites in the Yeongdong–Gwangju basin can be also explained by the mantle–crust mixing. Combined geochemical and isotopic signatures indicate that a simple binary mixing model is inadequate to explain both the geochemical and isotopic data. The chemistry of the granites is considered likely to reflect the composition of the igneous protolith that derived from depleted mantle, which explains why most Mesozoic granites in South Korea are represented by I-types, regardless of their temporal and spatial position. Nd-Sr isotopic signatures of the Mesozoic granites and basement rocks indicate that the continental crust beneath the Korean peninsular is vertically structured by the successive underplating of mantle-derived materials. It is postulated that the crust is vertically stratified from the surface to the lowermost crust with late Archean to early Proterozoic, early to middle Proterozoic (ca. 1·9 Ga), middle Proterozoic (ca. 1·5 Ga), and late Proterozioc (younger than 1·5 Ga) components.

A strong correlation exists between the Li isotopic compositions of CarboniferousTriassic granites from the New England Batholith, and the previously inferred involvement of sedimentary and mantle/infracrustal source components. Isotopically (Nd and Sr) juvenile, low-K, Cordilleran I-type granites of the Clarence River supersuite have δ7 Li= +2·2 to +8‰ similar to those of arc magmas, the inferred source of these granites (Bryant et al. 1997). Isotopic variability within this supersuite probably arises from heterogeneity within primary mantle-derived magmas, combined with subsequent modifications through interactions with crustal materials. Oxidised, high-K granites of the Moonbi Supersuite have more homogenous and slightly lighter Li isotopic compositions (δ7 Li= +1·9 to +4·2‰). The observed range of values lies within the range of arc magmas, and is consistent with partial melting of arc shoshonites within the crust (cf. Chappell 1978) or the involvement of high-K mantle-derived magmas (cf. Shaw & Flood 1981; Landenberger & Collins 1998). S-type granites of the Bundarra (δ7 Li= −0·1 to +2·1‰; average= +1˙3‰; n=6) and Hillgrove supersuites (δ7 Li= +0·4 to +1·7‰; average= +0·8‰) define a narrow range of isotopic compositions which are, overall, lower than those observed in NEB I-type granites or generally observed in primary arc magmas. Their isotopic compositions are equivalent to those typically observed in shales (primarily δ7 Li= −3·2 to +2·0‰; Moriguti & Nakamura 1998; Teng et al. 2004). No difference is evident in the isotopic compositions of the two S-type supersuites despite inferred differences in the degree of weathering experienced by the sedimentary protolith, or differences in mineralogy of the granites. Granites of the Uralla Supersuite, which have been have formed from mixtures of local meta-igneous and meta-sedimentary components, span a broad range of values (δ7 Li= −1·3 to +3·9‰) which overlap with both the sediment-poor New England Batholith I-type intrusions of the Clarence River and Moonbi supersuites, and the S-type granites of the Bundarra and Hillgrove supersuites. Lower δ7 Li values primarily occur in lower-K plutons from the northern portion of the Uralla Supersuite.

Overall, anatexis and magma differentiation do not appear to contribute to significant fractionation of Li isotopes relative to the inferred source components. However, subtly lower δ7 Li values, evident in the three leucogranites analysed herein, imply that subtle Li isotopic fractionation may occur in association with the exsolution of an aqueous fluid. Like most isotopic systems, the Li isotopic composition of rocks is not a definitive guide to source rock compositions, but given the results herein, the present authors suggest that it may play a very useful role in understanding crustal processes.

Several granites and basement gneisses along the southern margin of the Siberian Craton were sampled to obtain precise age constrains and compositional isotopic data. The analysed granite plutons are interpreted to have been emplaced between 1880 and 1850 Ma, and are related to Palaeoproterozoic collisional and post-collisional events. Pb-Pb whole data of a granulite (1884 ± 26 Ma) and a two mica granite (1821 ± 29 Ma) constrain these U-Pb single zircon ages. Sr, Nd and Pb-Pb isotope data reveal the crustal origin of the investigated rocks and the reworking of Archaean material. Nevertheless, a minor influence of a mantle component is still visible in the Pb isotopes. Geodynamically, the magmatic and metamorphic ages in the Kitoy area are linked to several Early Proterozoic events along the southern margin of the Siberian Craton. Since these events are all older than the assembly of Rodinia (about 1·4 Ga ago) the collisional processes are linked to the consolidation of the Siberian Craton itself in Early Proterozoic times.

Late Cretaceous (90–100 Ma) A-type granites are widespread in the coastal area of the Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces, SE China. According to mineralogical and geochemical characteristics, the A-type granites in this belt can be further divided into aluminous and peralkaline subgroups. The aluminous subgroup often contains aluminous-rich minerals (e.g. spessartine and Mn-rich muscovite), while the peralkaline subgroup usually contains riebeckite, arfvedsonite and aegirine. Geochemically, the aluminous A-type granites show lower Nb, Zr, Ga, Y and REE abundances, and lower FeO*/MgO and Ga/Al than the peralkaline subgroup. When they occur in the same area, the two subgroups of A-type granites display quite similar initial Nd isotopic compositions, which are indicative of mixing of ancient basement crustal rocks with variable amounts of mantle materials. Integrated geological and geochemical investigations indicate that both the aluminous and the peralkaline magmas are highly evolved and reflect the residual liquids left after high degrees of fractional crystallisation in a deep magma chamber. The present authors suggest that the mineralogical and geochemical differences between the aluminous and peralkaline subgroups are likely to have been generated via different differentiation paths controlled by varying fluorine contents of the parent magmas.

Late Yanshanian magmatism in SE China includes three stages of thermal event induced by the interaction between the continental margin of Eurasia and the paleo-Pacific plate during the Cretaceous period. Products of syn-orogenic magmatism (130–110 Ma) include high-Al gabbros (HAG), and gneissic tonalite, trondhjemite and granodiorite (TTG), which intruded into the deep basement (18–24 km). Rocks of the post- and an-orogenic magmatism are shallow-level (6–8 km) I-type granitoids (110–99 Ma), and miarolitic A-type granites plus rhyolite-dominate bimodal volcanics (94–81 Ma), respectively. Geochemically, HAG and TTG belong to the medium-K calc-alkaline affinity with high Sr/Y, whereas other granitoids are mainly high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic rocks with low Sr/Y. Sr and Nd isotope compositions suggest different sources of HAG and TTG from other rocks. Progressive depletions of Ba, Sr, Eu and P from I- to A-type granites reflect partial melting of felsic granulites from hydrous to dry conditions, whereas high Sr/Y in HAG and TTG are compatible with dehydration melting of amphibolites. Tectonic models which accommodate HAG and TTG may involve thickening of the lithosphere to convert the pre-existing lower-crust basic rocks into amphibolites. It was followed by basaltic underplating which is attributed to delamination of the thickened lithosphere and led to triggering of crust melting under exten