This book is an illustrative introduction to metamorphic rocks as seen in the field, designed for advanced high school to graduate-level earth science and geology students to jump-start their observational skills. In addition to photographs of rocks in the field, there are numerous line diagrams and examples of metamorphic features shown in thin section. The thin section photos are all at a scale and in a context that can be related to views seen in the field through a hand lens.

This book is an illustrative introduction to metamorphic rocks as seen in the field, designed for advanced high school to graduate-level earth science and geology students to jump-start their observational skills. In addition to photographs of rocks in the field, there are numerous line diagrams and examples of metamorphic features shown in thin section. The thin section photos are all at a scale and in a context that can be related to views seen in the field through a hand lens.

Table of Contents

Preface

About the author

Acknowledgements

A matter of scale

1 Introduction

The basics

Pressure, temperature, and metamorphic grade

Movement of rocks through P-T space

Preserving the prograde assemblage

Metamorphic field gradient

Rock strain: foliation and lineation

Chemical flux

Recrystallization

Summary and introduction to the following chapters

Part 1: Metamorphic rock types

2 Pelitic rocks

3 Quartzites

4 Marbles

5 Calc-silicate rocks

6 Mixed sedimentary rocks

7 Conglomerates and breccias

8 Gneisses

9 Basaltic rocks, low and intermediate pressure

10 Blueschists

11 Eclogites

12 Ultramafic rocks

13 Contact metamorphic rocks

14 Rocks in fault zones

Part 2: Metamorphic features

15 Foliation, cleavage, lineation

16 Folds

17 Porphyroblasts, porphyroclasts, and augen

18 Boudins

19 Veins and hydrothermal alteration

20 Metasomatism

21 Partial melting and migmatites

22 Retrograde metamorphism

Part 3: Relict pre-metamorphic features

23 Relict sedimentary features

24 Fossils in metamorphic rocks

25 Relict igneous features

References

Glossary of terms, rock types, and minerals

Glossary of terms

Glossary of rock types

Glossary of minerals

Index