Metamorphic Petrology

The first part of the module outlines the field appearance and tectonic settings of metamorphic rocks.
It deals with the development of metamorphic textures and the mechanisms by which minerals crystallise in the
solid state in response to strain and changing pressure and temperature conditions. It covers the mineral
assemblages that develop in metamorphosed basis igneous rocks (metabasites), mudstones and shales (pelites)
and limestones (calc-silicates) and the methods used to study them in the field and in the laboratory.
Laboratory techniques include petrological (optical) microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electron probe
microanalysis and the use and interpretation of chemographic and pressure-temperature phase diagrams.
The second part of the course provides a rigorous introduction to the application of equilibrium thermodynamics
to geothermobarometry and discusses the application of Shreinemakers' method in the topological analysis of
phase diagrams. Metamorphic reactions and the resultant mineral assemblages are explored in different
tectonic settings, e.g. the Barrovian, Buchan and high pressure (blueschist) styles of regional metamorphism,
high temperature (granulite-facies) terrains and the metamorphism of the ultramafic mantle rocks in rift zones.