Volume 26 of Reviews in Mineralogy provides a multidisciplinary review of our current knowledge of contact metamorphism. As in any field of endeavor, we are provided with new questions, thereby dictating future directions of study. Hopefully, this volume will provide inspiration and direction for future research on contact metamorphism. The Mineralogical Society of America sponsored the short course on Contact Metamorphism, October 17-19, 1991, at the Pala Mesa Resort, Fallbrook, California, prior to its annual meeting with the Geological Society of America.

This is a discount Black and white version. Some images may be unclear, please see BCCampus website for the digital version.This book was born out of a 2014 meeting of earth science educators representing most of the universities and colleges in British Columbia, and nurtured by a widely shared frustration that many students are not thriving in courses because textbooks have become too expensive for them to buy. But the real inspiration comes from a fascination for the spectacular geology of western Canada and the many decades that the author spent exploring this region along with colleagues, students, family, and friends. My goal has been to provide an accessible and comprehensive guide to the important topics of geology, richly illustrated with examples from western Canada. Although this text is intended to complement a typical first-year course in physical geology, its contents could be applied to numerous other related courses.

With the new global tectonics approach in the Earth Sciences, the quan titative aspects of the dynamics of rock-forming processes came into focus: geologists are no longer satisfied knowing the pressure-tempera ture conditions of the formation of a metamorphic rock or of the emplace ment of a magmatic body, but instead would like to learn the time history of these rocks as well, i. e. , derive the temperature-pressure-time path and relate it to a tectonic process. To achieve this goal, a knowledge of both pressure-temperature-dependent equilibria and the time scales at which these equilibria may be attained are essential. However, the latter kinetic information is much more difficult to retrieve than that on equilibria: whereas equilibria are controlled by state variables, and proper laboratory experiments may be directly applied to equilibrium natural assemblages, kinetics also depends on factors other than state variables, such as grain size, dislocation density, and especially time (rate of heating, duration of annealing, rate of cooling). Extrapolation of kinetic data obtained at high temperatures on laboratory time scales to more realistic lower tempera tures and geological time scales are dangerous because, for example, of possible changes from an intrinsically controlled defect regime to an extrinsic one as temperature is lowered, or from an interface-controlled to a diffusion-controlled reaction mechanism.

Metamorphic rocks make up the largest volume of the Earth. They systematically change their mineralogical composition as a result of tecto-thermal events. The outstanding feature of the 7th edition of this book is the large number of phase diagrams showing the stability relations among minerals and groups of minerals found in metamorphic rocks. The diagrams help to determine the pressure and temperature conditions under which a given collected set of metamorphic rocks may have formed. More than half of the chapters have been completely rewritten or revised. All figures have been edited and improved and recent advances in the field such as multiequilibria thermobarometry and pseudosections were incorporated in the text. The bibliography has been revised and extended, new research publications have also been included. Graduate students will find in depth information on the origin, significance and genesis of metamorphic rocks.

There has been a great advance in the understanding of processes of meta morphism 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 excit ing new knowledge is still often difficult for non-specialists to understand, and this book, like the first edition, aims at enlightenment. I have concen trated on the interpretation of the plate tectonic settings of metamorphism, rather than following a geochemical approach. Although there is an impress ive 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 m

This 1992 book contains well-illustrated and readable accounts covering many aspects of the earth sciences.

With new chapters on volcanism, new appendices & sharper photos, together with extensive updating of the whole text, this new edition builds on the strengths of its predecessor.