Polyphase and anticlockwise P‐T evolution for Franciscan eclogites and blueschists from Jenner, California, USA

High‐grade exotic blocks in the Franciscan Complex at Jenner, California, show evidence for polydeformation/metamorphism, with eight distinct stages. Two parallel sets of mineral assemblages [(E) eclogite, and (BS) laminated blueschist] representing different bulk chemistry were identified. Stage 1, recorded by parallel aligned inclusions (S1) of crossite + omphacite + epidote + ilmenite + titanite + quartz (E), and glaucophane + actinolite + epidote + titanite (BS) in the central parts of zoned garnets, represents the epidote blueschist facies. The onset of a second stage (stage 2) is represented by a weak crenulation of S1 and growth of garnet. This stage develops a well‐defined S2 foliation of orientated barroisite + epidote + titanite (E), or subcalcic actinolite + epidote + titanite (BS) at c . 90d̀ to S1, with syntectonic growth of garnet, defining the (albite‐)epidote‐amphibolite facies. A third stage, with aligned inclusions of glaucophane + (subcalcic) actinolite + phengite parallel to S2 in the outermost rims of large garnet grains, is assigned to the transitional (albite‐)epidote‐amphibolite/(garnet‐bearing) epidote blueschist facies. The fourth stage represents the peak metamorphism, and was identified by unorientated matrix minerals in the least retrograded samples. In this stage the mineral assemblages garnet + omphacite + glaucophane + phengite (E) and garnet + winchite + phengite + epidote (BS) both represent the eclogite facies. Stage 5 is represented by the retrogression of eclogite facies assemblages to the epidote blueschist facies assemblages crossite/glaucophane + garnet + omphacite + epidote + phengite (E), and glaucophane + actinolite + epidote + phengite (BS), with the development of an S5 foliation subparallel to S2. Stage 6 represents a crenulation of S5, with the development of a well‐defined S6 crenulation cleavage wrapping around relics of the eclogite facies assemblages. This crenulation cleavage is further weakly crenulated during a D7 event. Post‐D7 (stage 8) is recorded by the growth of lawsonite + chlorite ± actinolite replacing garnet, and by veins of lawsonite + pumpellyite + aragonite and phengite + apatite. The different, yet coeval, mineral parageneses observed in rock types (E) and (BS) are probably due to differences in bulk chemistry. The metamorphic evolution from stage 1 to stage 8 seems to have been broadly continuous, following an anticlockwise P ‐ T path: (1) epidote blueschist (garnet‐free) to (2) (albite‐)epidote‐amphibolite to (3) transitional epidote blueschist (garnet‐bearing)/(albite‐)epidote‐amphibolite to (4) eclogite to (5) epidote blueschist (garnet‐bearing) to (6‐7) epidote blueschist (garnet‐free) facies to (8) lawsonite + pumpellyite + aragonite‐bearing assemblages. This anticlockwise P ‐ T path may have resulted from a decreasing geothermal gradient with time in the Mesozoic subduction zone of California at early or pre‐Franciscan metamorphism.