Composite populations of monazite-group minerals of both metamorphic and metasomatic origin have been discovered in thin layers of granulite-facies metabasites interlayered with metapelites, located in the Val Strona di Omegna region of the Ivrea-Verbano Zone, Italy. In addition to monazite-(Ce), which is uncommonly poor in Th and is probably formed by incongruent dissolution of apatite, these populations include members of the monazite-huttonite series. The latter minerals contain between 13 and 30.1 mol.% ThSiO4 [= huttonitic monazite-(Ce)], and are known from only half a dozen other occurrences worldwide. We propose that breakdown of primary monazite-(Ce) in the metapelites during granulite-facies metamorphism mobilized Th and the REEs, which were then transported by high-grade metamorphic fluids into the metabasite layers to form the Th-rich minerals of the monazite-huttonite series.

Granulite-facies metamorphism recorded in NE Mozambique is attributed to three main tectonothermal events, covering more than 1400 Ma from Palaeoproterozoic – early Palaeozoic time. (1) Usagaran–Ubendian high-grade metamorphism of Palaeoproterozoic age is documented in the Ponta Messuli Complex by Grt-Sil-Crd-bearing metapelites, estimated to pressure (P) 0.75 ± 0.08 GPa and temperature (T) 765 ± 96°C. The post-peak P-T path is characterized by decompression followed by near-isobaric cooling. (2) Irumidian medium- to high-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism is evident in the Unango and Marrupa complexes of late Mesoproterozoic – early Neoproterozoic age. High-pressure granulite-facies is documented by Grt-Cpx-Pl-Rt-bearing mafic granulites in the northwestern part of the Unango Complex, with peak conditions up to P = 1.5 GPa and T = 850°C. Medium-pressure granulite-facies conditions recording P of c. 1.15 GPa and T of 875°C are documented by Grt-Opx-Cpx-Pl assemblage in mafic granulites and charnockitic gneisses of the central part of the Unango Complex. (3) Tectonothermal activity during the Ediacaran–Cambrian Kuunga Orogeny is recorded in the Mesoproterozoic gneiss complexes as amphibolite facies to medium-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism. Granulite facies are documented by Grt-Opx-Cpx-Pl-bearing mafic granulites and charnockitic gneisses, reporting P = 0.99 ± 13 GPa at T = 738 ± 84°C in the Unango Complex and P = 0.92 ± 18 GPa at T = 841 ± 135°C in the Marrupa Complex. This metamorphism is attributed to crustal thickening related to overriding of the Cabo Delgado Nappe Complex, and shorthening along the Lurio Belt during the early Palaeozoic Kuunga Orogeny.

The Bunger Hills area of the East Antarctic Shield consists of granulite-facies felsic orthogneiss, with subordinate paragneiss and mafic granulite. The igneous precursors of granodioritic orthogneiss were emplaced 1500-1700 Ma ago, and late Archaean (2640 Ma) tonalitic orthogneiss occurs in the nearby Obruchev Hills. Peak metamorphism (M1) (at about 750-800°C and 5-6kb) occurred 1190 ±15 Ma ago (U-Pb zircon age), and was accompanied by the first of three ductile deformations (D1). Emplacement of voluminous, mainly mantle-derived plutonic rocks, ranging from gabbro, through quartz monzogabbro and quartz monzodiorite, to granite, followed between 1170 (during D3) and 1150 Ma. Intrusion of abundant dolerite dykes of four chemically distinct suites at about 1140 Ma was associated with shear zone formation, indicating at least limited uplift; all subsequent deformation was of brittle-ductile type. Alkaline mafic dykes were emplaced 500 Ma ago. Marked geochronological similarities with the Albany Mobile Belt of Western Australia suggest that high-grade metamorphism occurred during collision between the Archaean Yilgarn Craton of Australia and the East Antarctic Shield about 1200 Ma ago.