Abstract The Eastern Ghats Belt (India) bears testimony to the assembly and dispersal of both the Columbia and Rodinia supercontinents, and possibly the formation of East Gondwana. The belt itself is a collage of different lithotectonic and isotopic domains, and therefore the petrological evolution of each domain is to be considered separately prior to the formation of the belt. In this paper, we present an updated review on the petrological and tectonic evolution of the different domains along with geochronological constraints. We develop tectonic models to show how different lithotectonic domains fit into supercontinent cycles in the Proterozoic period.

Abstract Available lithological, petrological and geochronological data on the rocks of the Eastern Ghats Belt (EGB), which has a key role to play in any model of Indo-Antarctic correlation in Precambrian and Cambrian times, have been synthesized and interpreted. Longitudinal lithological subdivisions of the belt are mostly not supported by recent geochronological data, which rather suggest a fourfold division based on protolith ages of the ortho- and paragneisses. Mineral ages show prominent tectonothermal events at Mesoproterozoic, Grenvillian and Pan-African times. However, not all of the imprints of all the events are preserved in all the geochronological domains. In the most well-studied Domain II, three phases of metamorphism are recorded — an early ultra high-temperature metamorphism with an anticlockwise P – T path, a second granulite facies event at c. 1000 Ma, with a retrograde trajectory of near-isothermal decompression, and a third of amphibolite facies. The available information, however, is not conclusive as to whether or not the entire EGB experienced polyphase UHT metamorphism. The propagation of the Grenvillian orogenic front in the EGB is identified.