In recent years, a rapidly expanding database, especially in sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) geochronology, has led to significant advances in understanding of the Precambrian tectonic evolution of the Grenville Province, including its Adirondack outlier, and the Mesoproterozoic inliers of the Appalachians. Based upon this information, we review the geochronology and tectonic evolution of these regions and significant similarities and differences between them. Isotopic data, including Pb isotopic mapping, suggest that a complex belt of marginal arcs and orogens existed from Labrador through the Adirondacks, the midcontinent, and into the southwest during the interval ca. 1.8–1.3 Ga. Other data indicate that Mesoproterozoic inliers of the Appalachians, extending from Vermont to at least as far south as the New Jersey Highlands, are, in part, similar in composition and age to rocks in the southwestern Grenville Province. Mesoproterozoic inliers of the Appalachian Blue Ridge likewise contain some lithologies similar to northern terranes but exhibit Nd and Pb isotopic characteristics suggesting non-Laurentian, and perhaps Amazonian, affinities. Models invoking an oblique collision of eastern Laurentia with Amazonia are consistent with paleomagnetic results, and collision is inferred to have begun at ca. 1.2 Ga. The collision resulted in both the ca. 1190–1140 Ma Shawinigan orogeny and the ca. 1090–980 Ma Grenvillian orogeny, which are well represented in the Appalachians. Several investigators have proposed that some Amazonian Mesoproterozoic crust may have been tectonically transferred to Laurentia at ca. 1.2 Ga. Data that potentially support or contradict this model are presented.

New geologic mapping, petrology, and U-Pb geochronology indicate that Mesoproterozoic crust near Mount Rogers consists of felsic to mafic meta-igneous rocks emplaced over 260 m.y. The oldest rocks are compositionally diverse and migmatitic, whereas younger granitoids are porphyritic to porphyroclastic. Cathodoluminescence imaging indicates that zircon from four representative units preserves textural evidence of multiple episodes of growth, including domains of igneous, metamorphic, and inherited origin. Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) trace-element analyses indicate that metamorphic zircon is characterized by lower Th/U, higher Yb/Gd, and lower overall rare earth element (REE) concentrations than igneous zircon. SHRIMP U-Pb isotopic analyses of zircon define three episodes of magmatism: 1327 ± 7 Ma, 1180–1155 Ma, and 1061 ± 5 Ma. Crustal recycling is recorded by inherited igneous cores of 1.33–1.29 Ga age in 1161 ± 7 Ma meta-monzogranite. Overlapping ages of igneous and metamorphic crystallization indicate that plutons of ca. 1170 and 1060 Ma age were emplaced during episodes of regional heating. Local development of hornblende + plagioclase + quartz ± clinopyroxene indicates that prograde metamorphism at 1170–1145 Ma and 1060–1020 Ma reached upper-amphibolite-facies conditions, with temperatures estimated using Ti-in-zircon geothermometry at ~740 ± 40 °C during both episodes. The chemical composition of 1327 ± 7 Ma orthogranofels from migmatite preserves the first evidence of arc-generated rocks in the Blue Ridge, indicating a subduction-related environment that may have been comparable to similar-age systems in inliers of the Northern Appalachians and the Composite Arc belt of Canada. Granitic magmatism at 1180–1155 Ma and ca. 1060 Ma near Mount Rogers was contemporaneous with anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite-granite (AMCG) plutonism in the Northern Appalachian inliers and Canadian Grenville Province. Metamorphism at ca. 1160 and 1060 Ma correlates temporally with the Shawinigan orogeny and Ottawan phase of the Grenvillian orogeny, respectively, suggesting that the Blue Ridge was part of Rodinia dating back to ca. 1180 Ma.

The Mount Hay block is a ~12-km-thick, deep continental crustal section exposed in the Arunta inlier in central Australia. The ~4-km-wide, granulite-facies (770–776 ± 38 °C) Capricorn ridge shear zone cross-cuts the dominant granulite-facies fabric of the Mount Hay block. In its present geometry, the Capricorn ridge shear zone contains a steeply south-southeast-dipping foliation, steeply east-southeast-plunging lineation, and south-side-up shear-sense indicators. When post-granulite-facies tilting is removed, the shear zone restores to a shallowly to moderately (30–50°) dipping, normal shear zone in which the lineation is oblique to the inferred Proterozoic plate boundary, suggesting oblique divergence. The field observations and reconstruction indicate that strain can be localized in the high-temperature, deep-crustal roots of extensional fault systems. This geometry of a discrete, moderately dipping, deep-crustal shear zone is consistent with simple-shear conceptual models of crustal extension.