This book is for geoscience students taking introductory or intermediate-level courses in igneous petrology, and helps them develop key skills (and confidence) in identifying igneous minerals, and in interpreting - and allocating appropriate names to - unknown rocks presented to them. The book thus serves, uniquely, both as a conventional course text and as a practical laboratory manual. Following an introduction reviewing igneous nomenclature, each chapter addresses a specific compositional category of magmatic rocks, covering definition, mineralogy, eruption/ emplacement processes, textures and crystallization processes, geotectonic distribution, geochemistry, and aspects of magma genesis.
One chapter is devoted to phase equilibrium experiments and magma evolution; another introduces pyroclastic volcanology. Each chapter concludes with exercises, answers being provided at the end of the book. Appendices provide a summary of techniques and optical data for microscope mineral identification, an introduction to petrographic calculations, a glossary of petrological terms, and a list of symbols and units. The book is richly illustrated with line drawings, monochrome pictures and colour plates.
Preface.Acknowledgements.1. An introduction to magmas and magmatic rocks.2. Basalts and related rocks.3. Magma differentiation: phase diagrams and variation diagrams.4. Gabbros and gabbroic rocks.5. Ultramafic and ultrabasic rocks.6. Andesites, dacites and rhyolites.7. How magmas erupt - an introduction to pyroclastic processes and products.8. Granitic rocks.9. Alkali rocks.Appendix A - Summary of mineral identification using a polarizing microscope.Appendix B - Petrographic calculations.Appendix C - Glossary.Appendix D - Symbols, units and constants used in this book.Answers to exercises.Reference list.Index
Robin Gill has lectured in igneous petrology and geochemistry at the University of London for 22 years, and before that held postdoctoral posts at the Universities of Manchester, Western Ontario and Oxford. He is author of Chemical Fundamentals of Geology (Springer) and editor of Modern Analytical Geochemistry (Addison Wesley Longman).
This is a very comprehensive, well written and well laid out book, which should appear on the shelves of all students and their advisors in the field of igneous petrology. (Geology Today, 1 November 2010) "Overall an excellent contribution by Robin Gill, this text book is a superb desk reference as well as a reasonably priced addition to any practical igneous petrology course at both intermediate and advanced levels". (The Geographical Journal, 4 December 2010) "Altogether, this is a very comprehensive, well written and well laid out book, which should appear on the shelves of all students and their advisors in the field of igneous petrology." (Dr. Kent Brooks, August 2010) "This textbook will be an invaluable guide for undergraduates in the laboratory and will allow them to develop their interpretative skills in petrology in the most intuitive way. The breadth of topics, clear layout and level of detail will no doubt lead it to become an essential, always on- hand reference for students." (Geological Magazine, August 2010)