Petrology of The Metamorphic Rocks ebook is available to be downloaded here now.
- Title: Petrology of The Metamorphic Rocks
- Author: Roger Mason
- Publisher: Springer Science
- Pages: 241
There has been a great advance in the understanding of processes of metamorphism and of metamorphic rocks since the last edition of this book appeared. Methods for determining temperatures and pressures have become almost routine, and there is a wide appreciation that there is not a single temperature and pressure of metamorphism, but that rocks may preserve, in their minerals, chemistry and textures, traces of their history of burial, heating, deformation and permeation by fluids.
However, this exciting new knowledge is still often difficult for non-specialists to understand, and this book, like the first edition, aims at enlightenment. I have concentrated on the interpretation of the plate tectonic settings of metamorphism, rather than following a geochemical approach. Although there is an impressive degree of agreement between the two, I believe that attempting to discover the tectonic conditions accompanying rock recrystallization will more readily arouse the interest of the beginner.
I have used a series of case histories, as in the first edition, drawing on my own direct experience as far as possible. This means that some subjects are treated in more detail than others, and many important topics are barely mentioned at all. It also means that general concepts appear in a rather haphazard order in the text. To help my readers, I have provided a glossary of definitions of terms used in the book, which are indicated in bold type in the text.
I discuss thermotectonic models, based on very simple 2-dimensional analyses, in describing the metamorphic history of many of my examples. Although many problems remain to be solved in this approach (and I do not claim that my models are sufficiently rigorous to be contributions to research discussion), its success in accounting for the shape of many P-T -t paths has convinced me that it is a useful framework to use in learning about metamorphism. I hope I have provided my readers with an interesting and sound basis for further exploration of this fascinating branch of the Earth sciences.