Igneous Rocks

In this book, readers will learn how the more than 600 different kinds of igneous rock all form from magma. Vibrant, full-color photos and carefully leveled text will engage readers as they learn about igneous rocks and where an Earth they are found.

This volume covers volcanoes, magma, crystals, granite, and other aspects of igneous rocks. It includes the science behind the rock cycle and the formation of igneous rocks as well as household uses of igneous rocks.

Our aim in writing this book is to try to show how igneous rocks can be persuaded to reveal some ofthe secrets of their origins. The data of igneous rocks consist of field relations, texture, mineralogy, and geochemistry. Additionally, experimental petrology tells us how igneous systems might be expected to behave. Working on this material we attempt to show how hypotheses concerning the origins and evolution of magmas are proposed and tested, and thus illuminate the interesting and fundamental problems of petrogenesis. The book assumes a modest knowledge of basic petro graphy, mineralogy, classification, and regional igneous geology. It has a role complementary to various established texts, several of which are descriptively good and give wide coverage and evaluation of petrogenetic ideas in various degrees of detail. Existing texts do not on the whole, however, deal with methodology, though this is one of the more important aspects of the subject. At first sight it may appear that the current work is a guidebook for the prospective research worker and thus has little relevance for the non-specialist student of geology. We hope this will prove to be far from the case. The methodological approach has an inherent interest because it can provide the reader with problems he can solve for himself, and as an almost incidental consequence he will acquire a satisfying understanding.

This book is for geoscience students taking introductory or intermediate-level courses in igneous petrology, to help develop key skills (and confidence) in identifying igneous minerals, 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, with the 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. Additional resources for this book can be found at: http://www.wiley.com/go/gill/igneous.

Decades of field and microscope studies, and more recent quantitative geochemical analyses have resulted in a vast, and sometimes overwhelming, array of nomenclature and terminology associated with igneous rocks. This book presents a complete classification of igneous rocks based on all the recommendations of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Subcommission on the Systematics of Igneous Rocks. The glossary of igneous terms has been fully updated since the first edition and now includes 1637 entries, of which 316 are recommended by the Subcommission. Incorporating a comprehensive bibliography of source references for all the terms included in the glossary, this book is an indispensable reference guide for all geologists studying igneous rocks, either in the field or the laboratory. It presents a standardised and widely accepted naming scheme that will allow geologists to interpret terminology in the primary literature and provide formal names for rock samples based on petrographic analyses. It is also supported by a website with downloadable code for chemical classifications.

The origin of different kinds of igneous rocks can be understood in terms of their tectonic setting, and by way of the isotope compositions of strontium, neodymium, and lead. This book explains the petrogenesis of igneous rocks as a consequence of tectonic processes resulting from interactions between asthenopheric plumes and the overlying lithospheric mantle. The relevant principles of isotope geochemistry are explained in the first chapter, making it accessible for university students as well as professionals. The relevant isotopic data is presented in diagrammatic form. The book contains more than 400 original drawings.

Igneous rock has a dramatic beginning - it requires red-hot volcanic activity. This fact-filled book explains how granite, lava, basalt, silica, quartz and feldspar are formed after hot, molten rock cools. Readers will also learn about volcanoes and tectonic plates, the minerals that make up igneous rocks, and the crystallization of rock material.

An introduction to igneous rocks.