Four generations of minerals have been confirmed in an eclogite-bearing impure marble located at Yangguantun, Rongcheng county, eastern Shandong province, China in the eastern part of the collision zone between the Sino-Korean and Yangtze cratons.
(1) Early stage: high-Al-P-F titanite, pure zoisite and jadeite-bearing diopside occur as rounded aggregates surrounded by main stage amphiboles and titanites. (2) The main stage assemblage is characterized by hornblende (I), titanite (II), calcite, dolomite and phlogopite; they are intergrown with each other or occur as corona around the primary diopside, zoisite or titanite. (3) Earlier retrogression stage: hornblende (I) is replaced by hornblende (II) which occurs around hornblende (I). (4) Later retrogression stage: hornblende (II) is replaced by tremolite, chlorite and albite.
The early stage is correlated with the eclogitic facies, but the main, earlier retrogression and later retrogression stages reflect retrogressions of eclogitic marble at different depth during decompression. The high pressure evidence and the metamorphic evolution of the marble studied, whose precursor was of crustal sedimentary affinity, indicate that the marble was subducted from the surface to great depth and then uplifted into the country rock gneiss, together with ultra-high-pressure eclogite and ultramafic rocks.