Metamorphic Petrology Links

This page contains annotated links to material about metamorphic rocks, migmatites and granitoid rocks, and related areas of "hard-rock" geology. Volcanoes capture the public imagination, but other areas of petrology are under-represented on the Web, and resource indexes rarely give petrology its own section. I hope this page will help to draw some of the existing resources together.

I have tried to stick to petrology - i.e. studies of rocks. It would be easy to fill the page with mineralogical links, but others have covered this area pretty well. I have included mineral links where, for example, they show images of metamorphic minerals in the context of the rock. On the theoretical side, I have included links to the thermodynamics of metamorphic and igneous rock systems.

I have organised them into the following categories:

  1. Lists of petrological links
  2. Organisations and institutions dealing with petrology
  3. Petrology journals
  4. Petrology research groups
  5. Hard rock researchers' home pages
  6. Petrological topics and on-line posters
  7. Special topics
    • Thermobarometry
    • Low grade metamorphism
    • Microstructure
    • Granites
    • Fluid Inclusions
  8. Review papers and reports
  9. Images of metamorphic rocks and minerals
    • Optical petrography
    • Microprobe and SEM imaging
  10. Course materials for metamorphic petrology

Lists of petrological links

Andrea Koziol's page: Mineralogy and Petrology Research on the Web
http://homepages.udayton.edu/~koziol/resminpet.html

Links for Mineralogists, Würzburg University, Germany
A very thorough set of links maintained by Klaus-Peter Kelber. Several of these pages have metamorphic content.
http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/mineralogie/links.html

John Winter
Has a set of Mineralogy and petrology links of similar scope to Andrea Koziol's
http://people.whitman.edu/~winterj/

Jürgen Kraus's
Structural Geology and Metamorphic Petrology Resources on the WWW
http://craton.geol.BrockU.CA/guest/jurgen/struct.htm
(Probably not updated since 1998)

Petrology from PSIgate
Physical Sciences information gateway from the UK academic community's Resource Discovery Network
http://www.psigate.ac.uk/ROADS/subject-listing/earth/552.html

Metamorphic Rocks from GeologyLink, from the Houghton Mifflin Company
This is a publishers' support site, though quite a useful one.

Many other lists of on-line resources have some petrology content, although it's not usually in a category of its own. Try my general Earth Science resources page.

 

Organisations and institutions dealing with petrology

Metamorphic Studies Group
of the Mineralogical and Geological Societies. Includes details of meetings and field trips, a link to the Geo-Metamorphism Mailbase archive, and some useful links.
http://msg.gly.bris.ac.uk/default.html

Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Home page, with information (e.g. on Society meetings) and resources, and access to Mineralogical Magazine and Clay Minerals ONLINE
http://www.minersoc.org/

Mineralogical Society of America
Publications, details of forthcoming meetings, membership info, WWW resources, crystal structure database.
http://www.minsocam.org/

Geological Society of America
Check out relevant meetings, publications (Geology, Bulletin), the Data Repository.
http://www.geosociety.org/

American Geophysical Union
Includes a facility to search the abstracts of AGU meetings, and links to AGU journals, including the electronic journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G-cubed).
http://earth.agu.org/

 

Petrology journals and books

Journal of Metamorphic Geology
http://www.gly.bris.ac.uk/www/jmg/JMG.html

American Mineralogist
http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/AmMin/AmMineral.html

Journal of Petrology
http://petrology.oupjournals.org/ or http://intl-petrology.oupjournals.org

Geology (Geological Society of America)
http://www.aescon.com/geosociety/pubs/geology.htm

Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology
http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00410/index.htm

Mineralogical Magazine
http://www.catchword.com/titles/minsoc/0026461x/contp1-1.htm

Andrea Koziol (Dayton, Ohio) keeps a fuller list of mineralogy and petrology journals.

More on Earth Science Publishing:

Earth Science Journals
http://www.ncpgg.adelaide.edu.au/journals.htm.

Geoscience Journals
http://www.uni-mainz.de/FB/Geo/Geologie/GeoJournals.html

Links to publishers:
http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/publishers.html

Mailing lists, with searchable or browsable archives:

Geo-Metamorphism
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/GEO-METAMORPHISM.html

Geo-Tectonics
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/GEO-TECTONICS.html

Geo-Mineralisation
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/GEO-MINERALISATION.html

 

Petrology research groups

Petrological research groups are listed in the following compilations:

Otherwise, make use of the following lists of Earth Science departments:

European List from Mainz
http://www.uni-mainz.de/FB/Geo/Geologie/GeoInst/Europa.html

N American Geoscience Departments (V.J. Ansfield, S Dakota)
http://www.usd.edu/esci/geodepts.html

Links To More Geoscience Department Directories
http://www.usd.edu/esci/other.html

 

Hard rock researchers' home pages

I have listed here a small selection of hard rock researchers' home pages which are worth a visit for the variety or quality of material they offer.

Terry Gordon, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Calgary, Calgary Alberta T2N 1N4
http://www.ichor.ucalgary.ca/~tmg/index.html.
Has links related to thermodynamic calculations, including a well-illustrated explanation of the INVEQ approach to P-T estimation, and a guide to available software. Lots of other goodies, too, on educational technology, 3D viewing, teaching methods, writing skills and the nature of science.

Frank Spear, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
http://ees2.geo.rpi.edu/spear/spear.html
Illustrated research activities, and downloadable Mac software, including the Gibbs program.

 

Petrological topics and on-line posters

The Garnet Gallery
Tom Foster's Web Site at the Geology Department, University of Iowa.
[Not sure that this site still exists - I always get "connection refused" messages]

Garnet Images (colour composition maps)
Accompany the American Mineralogist paper "Pressure-temperature- reaction history of metapelitic rocks from the Maryland Piedmont based on correlated garnet zoning and plagioclase inclusions" by H.M. Lang.

G.M. Dipple's Metamorphic Group @ UBC
Give summaries of their field and modelling studies in thermal aureoles
[Can't connect Jan 2004]

Larry Meinert's Skarn Page
An illustrated review paper and other information about metasomatic rocks and their economic potential.

Microstructures of Metamorphic Rocks
An on-line poster describing how crystal size distributions shed light on aspects of metamorphic reaction kinetics.

Crystal Size Distributions
In volcanic rocks (but of more general applicability) by Tony Peterson.
[Not currently available Jan 2004]

Origin of Granulites: an annotated reading list.

Caltech Experimental Petrology Home Page
Igneous petrology and mineral spectroscopy, mainly, but good accounts of current research (Ed Stolper, Peter Wyllie, and George Rossman).

Research Posters

Posters from Newcastle University Geology Dept, NSW, Australia (updated link)

  • Geological structures useful as sense of movement indicators in deformed rocks. A small atlas by Brian Engel.
  • Mount Dromedary, NSW, a zoned monzonite pluton. Petrography by Hope Nesmith.
  • Tectonic significance of veins in the Woodsreef asbestos deposit, southern New England Fold Belt, NSW Australia. Robin Offler.
  • Origin and significance of mafic enclaves in peraluminous A-type granites: examples from northeastern NSW. Bill Landenberger.
  • S-type Granites of the Hillgrove Plutonic Suite, New England Batholith, Eastern Australia: partial melting products of an intermediate greywacke source. B. Landenberger & W.J. Collins
  • Source of gold in a slate belt- geochemical modelling of the Hill End goldfield, N.S.W.
  • Skarn formation and metamorphism: the Palaeozoic magnetite skarn at Tallawang, NSW, Australia

Episodic, Channelled Fluid Flow from Internal and External Sources: Reynolds Range, Central Australia
by Ian Cartwright (Department of Earth Sciences, Monash University),.Ian Buick and Julie Vry

Metamorphic Petrology Group, University of Basel, Switzerland
Featuring an appreciation of the life and career of Prof. Martin Frey, who lost his life in a mountain accident in September 2000, and a number of case studies:

The Llano Uplift
From Rob's Granite Page © ... "the igneous and metamorphic heart of Texas".

P-T-time models for the Himalayan slab: a slide show illustrating how the rate and timing of exhumation is deduced from metamorphic thermobarometry and cooling age data.

Nanga Parbat - mountain uplift and tectonics
A virtual field trip from Rob Butler, Leeds University.

 

Special topics

Thermobarometry

Tutorials, examples, software and on-line P-T calculations.

Generalized Thermobarometry: WEBINVEQ with the TWQ 1.02 data base
Submit the activities of end-members of coexisting minerals, and WEBINVEQ will compute a least-squares estimate of the pressure and temperature of equilibration.
http://ichor.geo.ucalgary.ca/~tmg/Webinveq/inveq0.html

Geoff Nichols' Thermobarometry
For high-grade metapelites with Grt-Crd-Spl-Sill/Ky-Qtz, using data from Nichols et al. (1992), Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 111: 362-377.
http://www.es.mq.edu.au/geology/geoff/geotherm/html/

Practical Aspects of Thermobarometry
http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~davewa/pt/pt-start.html
My own on-line tutorial, aimed at beginning graduate students. Uses Holland and Powell's THERMOCALC program and data set.

Software for Thermobarometric calculations
See the compilation (last mod 2001) by Terry Gordon (University of Calgary)
http://ichor.geo.ucalgary.ca/~tmg/Research/thermo_links.html.

Low grade metamorphism

The Very Low Grade Metamorphism home page, Erlangen, Germany
Diagenesis and low temperature metamorphism in clastic, carbonate and volcanic rocks. Looks to be infrequently updated these days.

Metamorphic Petrology Group, University of Basel, Switzerland
Also some on-line posters.

Microstructure

Deformation Microstructures Course
Course notes for the short course presented by Mark Jessell (Monash) & Paul Bons (Mainz), updated annually.

Albany Microstructures
Analogue modelling of microstructural development (with movies) by Youngdo Park, Jin-Han Ree & Win Means, at the State University of New York, Albany (via Monash!)

ELLE project home page
Numerical modelling of microstructures

Stress, Strain and Structure
Volume 2 of the Journal of the Virtual Explorer, contains 19 contributions dealing with theory, analogue modelling and field studies, includes animations and movies.

Tektonophysics Group at Mainz
Describes active research at Tectonophysics in Mainz by Cees Passchier and his group, with a publication list, and some figures from the book Microtectonics.

Structure and Metamorphism Research at James Cook University
Includes useful bibliography of papers by Bell, Rubenach etc..

Microstructure and Deformation, University of Basel
Atlas of deformation microstrutures, information on orientation imaging, and more.

Granites

Rob's Granite Page - a roadcut on the information superhighway
All about granite - in Texas, in other parts of the world, and in commercial stone catalogues.

Myrmekite and Metasomatic Granite
A list of case studies by Lorence G Collins, aiming to show that certain granite types result from K-metasomatism.

Fluid Inclusions

Fluid Inclusions - Meetings, newsletters. Phil Brown, Madison, Wisconsin.

What determines the size of secondary fluid inclusions?
Summary of a mailing-list discussion posted by Dirk Hellwig, Marburg.

Research group of Dr J Mullis, Basel, Switzerland (links not functioning correctly, Jan 2004)

 

Review Papers and Reports

US National Reports to the IUGG 1991-1994
Originally published in Rev. Geophys. Vol. 33 Suppl., © 1995 American Geophysical Union, these reports are available on-line (the text, anyway). The articles most relevant to petrology are:

 

Images of metamorphic rocks and minerals

Optical petrography

Metamorphic Rocks
Good quality large format photomicrographs of a variety of samples. Other rock types also illustrated at this site, compiled by J.M. Derochette.
http://www.users.skynet.be/jm-derochette/metamorphic_rocks.htm

See also Course Materials for Metamorphic Petrology, below.

Microprobe and SEM imaging

University of Massachusetts microprobe laboratory
Nice microprobe composition maps with commentary - a small atlas of metamorphic textures and processes.

The University of Oregon microprobe laboratory
has a few images and some useful information about the method.

Bilby Research Center, Northern Arizona University
James H Wittke: information about the microprobe lab and a course syllabus.

Oxford Brookes' University SEM facility
has a few inline images of metamorphic rocks. It has some explanation of the principles of SEM imaging, a small library of EDS spectra, and is part of the teaching material for a geochemistry module.

Also at Brookes is a page of links to other analytical electron microscopy sites

Here is an updated link to the Microbeam Analysis Society.

Hand specimen images

Geology collection, School of Ocean and Earth Science, Southampton.

 

Course materials for metamorphic petrology

Many course outlines are available on the Web. For some links, see those listed by John Butler and Jürgen Kraus. I've selected some which have additional useful materials, such as images or study aids.

University of British Columbia, Geology 202: Introduction to Petrology http://www.science.ubc.ca/~geol202/
A notable on-line petrology resource, at an introductory level. Most higher-level course materials are now password-protected, and so cannot be accessed from outside UBC. Some useful components are:

John Winter - Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology
John Winter has a set of large Powerpoint presentations based on the chapters of his text book available for download. Follow the Petrology link from http://people.whitman.edu/~winterj/.

Lynn Fichter, James Madison University
On-line, well-illustrated lecture notes, some also available in PDF format
http://geollab.jmu.edu/Fichter/MetaRx/

Metamorphic Petrology Lectures
Six lectures forming part of a general petrology course by Professor S.A. Nelson, Tulane University, available in HTML and PDF formats
http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens212

Atlas of igneous and metamorphic rocks, minerals and textures
Department of Geology University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
http://www.geolab.unc.edu/Petunia/IgMetAtlas/mainmenu.html

Petrography
Humboldt State University Geology Dept. Includes metamorphic minerals and textures in thin section.
http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~jdl1/petrography.page.html

Brock University, Canada, ERSC 3P21
Year 3 Petrology and Petrography course, notes and thin section mineral atlas by Greg Finn.

Here is a page with petrological teaching links:

Multimedia and Web Teaching (Terry Gordon, Calgary) - Web links to teaching development and resources sites.