Igneous Rocks and Processes – A Practical Guide

Igneous Rocks and Processes – A Practical Guide is for geoscience students taking introductory or intermediate-level courses in igneous petrology. It helps develop key skills and confidence in identifying igneous minerals, interpreting, and allocating appropriate names to unknown rocks presented to them. The book 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. It covers definition, mineralogy, eruption/emplacement processes, textures and crystallisation processes, geotectonic distribution, geochemistry, and aspects of magma genesis. One chapter is devoted to phase equilibrium experiments and magma evolution, while another introduces pyroclastic volcanology. Each chapter concludes with exercises, with the answers 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.