Preservation of evidence for prograde metamorphism in ultrahigh-temperature, high-pressure kyanite-bearing granulites, South Harris, Scotland

Mineralogical and mineral chemical evidence for prograde metamorphism is rarely preserved in rocks that have reached ultrahigh‐temperature (UHT) conditions (>900 °C) because high diffusion and reaction rates erase evidence for earlier assemblages. The UHT, high‐pressure (HP) metasedimentary rocks of the Leverburgh belt of South Harris, Scotland, are unusual in that evidence for the prograde history is preserved, despite having reached temperatures of ∼955 °C or more. Two lithologies from the belt are investigated here and quantitatively modelled in the system NaO–CaO–K2O–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O: a garnet‐kyanite‐K‐feldspar‐quartz gneiss (XMg = 37, A/AFM = 0.41), and an orthopyroxene‐garnet‐kyanite‐K‐feldspar quartzite (XMg = 89 A/AFM = 0.68). The garnet‐kyanite gneiss contains garnet porphyroblasts that grew on the prograde path, and captured inclusion assemblages of biotite, sillimanite, plagioclase and quartz (