The course looks in the distribution, minerals association, and chemical composition of the rocks that compose the crust and upper mantle and relating them to various tectonic environments. The course also investigates the genesis, classification, textures of constituent minerals, structure and modes of occurrence of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The concepts of chemical equilibrium and reactions, the Phase Rule, binary and tertiary systems will be the foundation of the course. Suggested additional topics would include the dynamics of crustal and mantle melting as preserved in the chemical composition of minerals of igneous rocks, the long-term record of global climate change as preserved in the minerals of sedimentary rocks, and the time-temperature-depth record preserved in minerals of metamorphosed crustal rocks.
The course also introduces the student in the study of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks with the use of the petrographic microscope. The appreciation of the student to the basic microscopic methodologies in the analysis of rocks will be one of the expected outputs of the course. Petrogenesis of the different rocks would be well understood in the study and analysis of rocks both in hand specimens and in thin sections.
- Teacher: Gareth Fabbro
- Teacher: Adrian L. Melana
- Non-editing teacher: Riva Karyl Varela