Metamorphic Rocks and Their Geodynamic Significance: A Petrological Handbook (Petrology and Structural Geology (12))

From metamorphism to metamorphosis, there is only a shade of a nuance. Because me- morphic rocks are not only what they are, but also what they were, and they tell of what happened in between. What must be discovered: how to recognize in the butterfly, the caterpillar that was, or in the caterpillar the butterfly that will be? And how to describe the metamorphosis, excuse me, metamorphism which leads from one to the other? It is to this engaging history, this marvelous tale, written progressively over time, which Jacques Kornprobst leads us. If the sedimentary and magmatic rocks have been the object of reflection for a long time, for which a contradiction was established in the century in the confrontation between the Neptunism of Werner for whom everything came from the sea, and the P- tonism of Hutton who derived all rocks from the interior of the earth, the “crystalline schists” as they were called, and as we call them today for simplicity, appear most ambi- ous: they had the crystals of rocks of endogenous origin and appeared to have the strati- cation of exogenous rocks with which one confused the schistosity. These crystalline schists are in some ways the bats of the rock kingdom. This book describes metamorphic rock formation mechanisms in a simplified form. It presents the geometrical rules which control mineral assemblages as a function of rock composition, and provides the basis of a thermodynamical approach used for equilibrium slope calculations as well as for the evaluation of P, T stability fields of mineral associations. On the basis of several examples from the literature, the author emphasizes the relations between different metamorphic gradients and different geodynamic situations. Associated P-T-t paths are examined from several points of view including the respective roles of heat conduction and convection. Audience: This textbook will be useful to undergraduate students in geology, but also to research students and scientists needing to rapidly update their knowledge of metamorphism. It is also accessible to anybody interested in geosciences wanting to acquire a basic knowledge of the close relationships that exist between geodynamics and metamorphic processes "Audience: This textbook will be useful to undergraduate students in geology, but also to research students and scientists needing to rapidly update their knowledge of metamorphism. It is also accessible to anybody interested in Geosciences, wanting to acquire a basic knowledge of the close relationships that exist between geodynamics and metamorphic processes."--Jacket Metamorphism is the sum of all transformations which cause a rearrangement of the elements of a rock at the atomic scale, leading to a recrystallization in the solid state (with or without a fluid phase), as a result of variations in temperature, pressure or of composition. Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Metamorphism: Factors and Mechanisms....Pages 3-31 Metamorphic Rocks....Pages 33-46 Evaluation of Metamorphic Conditions....Pages 47-83 Front Matter....Pages 85-87 Contact Metamorphism....Pages 89-100 Regional Metamorphism....Pages 101-177