The principal investigators will study high-grade metamorphic rocks in the People's Republic of China in collaboration with scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Academia Sinica of Peking University and the Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources from Hubei and Anhui. The objectives are to map several metamorphic belts in central China, to thoroughly study the mineralogy of the high-pressure rocks there, to delineate mineral parageneses and the pressure-temperature-time paths of the rocks, to establish geologic ages for the several critical rock units, and to relate these to igneous and tectonic features. The study will lead to a better understanding of how continental crust was subducted to mantle depths, and later exhumed.
