Thermal history is the evolution of the temperature experienced by a rock or mineral over geological time.
It describes how the rock heated up; how it cooled down; at what rates those changes occurred; and at what depths it was located.
A rock’s temperature changes due to processes such as burial; exhumation; tectonic uplift; erosion; magmatism; metamorphism; or changes in the geothermal gradient.
The thermal history is reconstructed using thermochronology, geochronology, thermal modeling, and geological and structural data.