[1][2][3][4] Granulite-facies rocks metamorphosed at very high temperatures were identified in the early 1980s, although it took another decade for the geoscience community to recognize UHT metamorphism as a common regional phenomenon.
Petrological evidence based on characteristic mineral assemblages backed by experimental and thermodynamic relations demonstrated that Earth's crust can attain and withstand very high temperatures (900–1000 °C) with or without partial melting.
[6][7][8][9][10] Paleoproterozoic UHT granulites were reported from the North China Craton (during the accretion of the supercontinent Columbia),[11][12][13] Taltson magmatic zone, northwestern Canada[14] and South Harris, Lewisian complex, Scotland.
[11][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] UHT rocks are also reported from younger terranes like the Triassic Kontum Massif, Vietnam,[34] Cretaceous Higo belt, Japan[35][36] and Paleogene Gruf Complex, central Alps.
[40] In this regard, the episodic formation of HT to UHT granulite-facies metamorphic rocks is temporally and spatially coupled with the breakup or attempting rupture of supercontinents in the plate tectonics context.