Pressure—temperature—time (
P
—
T
—
t
) histories of erogenic belts
Thermal modelling shows that a cycle of crustal thickening and erosion reproduces many of the characteristics of medium-pressure metamorphic terranes. In contrast, the structural and metamorphic features of high-pressure terranes suggest rapid exhumation, possibly tectonically as fault-bounded blocks. Low-pressure metamorphism requires an augmented heat supply. Such terranes are characterized by granite—gneiss domes, and evidence of crustal extension, and hence may be the result of the mechanically likely orogenic sequence of early thickening followed by extension. Whether earlier isograd sequences are extended, condensed, or reset depends upon the relative rates of deformation and thermal relaxation, and when the deformation occurs relative to the thermal peak of metamorphism. Detailed determinations of relations between deformation events and metamorphism is made difficult by the contrast between continuous metamorphic evolution and short time-span deformation events. Combined microstructural and geochronological studies, together with a consideration of the distribution of isograds will give most information on complex, polymetamorphic histories, and allow distinction between regional and local features, especially those due to differential uplift.