A Treasure Chest of Nanogranites: the Bohemian Massif (Central Europe)

Despite 150 years of investigation of the Bohemian Massif (Central Europe), it is only recently that the investigation of old and new samples displayed the occurrence of tiny portions of crystallized anatectic melt in regional migmatites. These vestiges of magma, called “nanogranites”, are natural probes of the partial melting processes in the crust. Original melt composition and water content can be directly analyzed after piston cylinder re-homogenization. When compared to classic re-melting experiments, nanogranites are ideal “natural” experimental charges of anatectic melt. They are encapsulated in peritectic garnet immediately after production – both phases are products of the same partial melting reaction. Sheltered inside garnet, they remain unaffected by the physico-chemical changes which affected the host migmatites during their slow cooling, unlike leucosomes and anatexis-related plutons.

Five different case studies of nanogranite-bearing high-grade rocks have been identified so far: three in metapelites from the Moldanubian Zone, and two in metagranitoids from the Granulitgebirge and Orlica–Śnieżnik Dome. Their characterization provides insights into how the continental crust melts at different depths, from shallow levels to mantle depths, during different moments of its metamorphic history (prograde vs. decompressional melting). For example, the investigation and experimental re-melting of nanogranites from Grt+Ky leucogranulites (Orlica–Śnieżnik Dome) recently provided evidence of prograde melting of metagranitoids under eclogite-facies conditions (T≥875°C and P~2.7 GPa), close to the stability field of coesite. The melt generated is granitic, hydrous (6 wt% H₂O) and metaluminous (ASI=1.03), and is at the moment the “deepest” glass obtained through re-homogenization of primary polycrystalline inclusions in natural rocks. This work confirms that nanogranites in migmatites 1) are a powerful tool to constrain anatexis in natural rocks, and 2) can be found, re-homogenized and investigated in rocks melted under variable PT conditions, even at mantle depths.