regional metamorphism

1. A type of metamorphism in which the mineralogy and texture of rocks are changed over a wide area by deep burial and heating associated with the large-scale forces of plate tectonics. In regional metamorphism, rocks that form closer to the margin of the tectonic plates, where the heat and pressure are greatest, often differ in their minerals and texture from those that form farther away.

2. Compare contact metamorphism

Example Sentences

Regional metamorphism has arisen in the heart of mountain-chains, and in any other district where the deformation of the crust has been sufficiently intense.

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This regional metamorphism, as it is termed, has affected the rocks in certain instances throughout districts measuring many hundreds of square miles in surface extent, and with a vertical range of many thousands of feet.

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The analogy between rocks altered by contact metamorphism and those affected by regional metamorphism had led to the conclusion that the latter, like the former, have been changed by heat and the passage through them of heated water bearing mineral matter, and especially silica, in solution.

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