The tectonic settings for the formation and evolution of regional granulite terranes and the lowermost continental crust can be deduced from pressure–temperature–time (P–T–time) paths and constrained by petrological and geophysical considerations.

P–T conditions deduced for regional granulites require transient, average geothermal gradients of greater than 35°C km⁻¹, implying minimum heat flow in excess of 100 mWm⁻². Such high heat flow is probably caused by magmatic heating. Tectonic settings wherein such conditions are found include convergent plate margins, continental rifts, hot spots and at the margins of large, deep-seated batholiths. However, particular P–T–time paths do not allow specific tectonic settings to be distinguished at this time. Under different conditions, both clockwise, CW (P_max attained before T_max), and anticlockwise, ACW (P_max attained slightly after T_max), paths are possible in the same tectonic setting. Both CW and ACW end-member paths can yield nearly isobaric cooling, IBC, paths. Such cooling paths are clearly not an artefact of thermobarometry, but can be constrained by solid–solid and devolatilization equilibria and geophysical modelling.

In terms of understanding the evolution of the deep crust, a potentially significant group of regional granulite terranes are those that show evidence for ACW-IBC paths. Such paths are the likely result of: (i) episodic igneous activity resulting in intrusions within all levels of the crust, (ii) thickening of the crust by magmatic underplating, (iii) slow uplift as a result of the formation of a deep, garnet-rich crustal root and (iv) excavation resulting from a later tectonic event unrelated to that resulting in the formation of the granulites. The later event might be triggered by the delamination of the garnet-rich, lowermost crust.