Metamorphism, mineralogical and structural adjustments of solid rocks to physical and chemical conditions differing from those under which the rocks originally formed. Changes produced by surface conditions such as compaction are usually excluded. The most important agents of metamorphism include temperature, pressure, and fluids. Equally as significant are changes in chemical environment that result in two metamorphic processes: (1) mechanical dislocation where a rock is deformed, especially as a consequence of differential stress; and (2) chemical recrystallization where a mineral assemblage becomes out of equilibrium due to temperature and pressure changes and a new mineral assemblage forms.
Three types of metamorphism may occur depending on the relative effect of mechanical and chemical changes. Dynamic metamorphism, or cataclasis, results mainly from mechanical deformation with little long-term temperature change. Textures produced by such adjustments range from breccias composed of angular, shattered rock fragments to very fine-grained, granulated or powdered rocks with obvious foliation and lineation. Large, pre-existing mineral grains may be deformed as a result of stress. Contact metamorphism occurs primarily as a consequence of increases in temperature when differential stress is minor. A common phenomenon is the effect produced adjacent to igneous intrusions where several metamorphic zones represented by changing mineral assemblages reflect the temperature gradient from the high-temperature intrusion to the low-temperature host rocks; these zones are concentric to the intrusion. Because the volume affected is small, the pressure is near constant. Resulting rocks have equidimensional grains because of a lack of stress and are usually fine-grained due to the short duration of metamorphism. Regional metamorphism results from the general increase, usually correlated, of temperature and pressure over a large area. Grades or intensities of metamorphism are represented by different mineral assemblages that either give relative values of temperature or absolute values when calibrated against laboratory experiments. Regional metamorphism can be subdivided into different pressure-temperature conditions based on observed sequences of mineral assemblages. It may include an extreme condition, where partial melting occurs, called anatexis.
Other types of metamorphism can occur. They are retrograde metamorphism, the response of mineral assemblages to decreasing temperature and pressure; metasomatism, the metamorphism that includes the addition or subtraction of components from the original assemblage; poly-metamorphism, the effect of more than one metamorphic event; and hydrothermal metamorphism, the changes that occur in the presence of water at high temperature and pressure which affect the resulting mineralogy and rate of reaction.