• clockwise P-T-d path.
• Favone-Fautea metamorphic complex
• granulites
• Hercynian Corsica
• migmatites
• shear zones

The goal of this thesis was the reconstruction of the tectono-metamorphic history of the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Fautea-Favone Metamorphic Complex (FFMC), a little septum of Variscan basement cropping out in the southeastern Corsica (France). A multidisciplinary approach including field mapping (conducted at a scale of 1:3.500), structural analysis at the meso- and microscopic scale, petrological analysis (associated to SEM/EMPA analysis) and thermo-baric investigations was used to individuate and describe the deformation phases and to compile Pressure (P)-Temperature (T)-deformation (d) paths for the investigated complex. Three metamorphic complexes were documented for the first time: the Fautea Migmatitic Complex (FMC), which comprises migmatites, migmatitic orthogneiss and migmatitic gneiss; the Transition Units (TRU) and the Tarco-Favone Gneissic Complex (TFC), composed of three kyanite and garnet-bearing gneiss units discriminated on considering deformation and texture. The structural analysis reveals that FFMC recorded a polyphase and progressive deformation history, divided into four deformative phases (D1-D4). The D1 produces a gneissic and migmatitic foliation and the D2 phase produced folds which axial plane foliation developed progressively in a mylonitic foliation. The S2 mylonitic foliation is deformed by localized ductile to brittle shear zones (D3). The final D4 phase produced oblique normal faults. Thermo-baric data suggest a clockwise P-T-d path where the D1 phase is referred to the early stage of exhumation. The diffuse anastomosed D2 shear zones produced most of the exhumation (c. 40 km, from high pressure granulite facies to high temperature granulite facies/amphibolite facies). The localized D3 shear zones were responsible of the exhumation up to shallow structural levels under greenschist facies conditions.