An Introduction to Metamorphic Petrology

This second edition is fully updated to include new developments in the study of metamorphism as well as enhanced features to facilitate course teaching.

It integrates a systematic account of the mineralogical changes accompanying metamorphism of the major rock types with discussion of the conditions and settings in which they formed. The use of textures to understand metamorphic history and links to rock deformation are also explored.

Specific chapters are devoted to rates and timescales of metamorphism and to the tectonic settings in which metamorphic belts develop. These provide a strong connection to other parts of the geology curriculum. Key thermodynamic and chemical concepts are introduced through examples which demonstrate their application and relevance.

Richly illustrated in colour and featuring end-of-chapter and online exercises, this textbook is a comprehensive introduction to metamorphic rocks and processes for undergraduate students of petrology, and provides a solid basis for advanced study and research.

About the Authors

Bruce Yardley is Emeritus Professor at the University of Leeds and previously taught at the Universities of Manchester and East Anglia and has spent sabbaticals at Otago, ETH Zurich and Wisconsin - Madison. He has worked on many aspects of metamorphic petrology and crustal fluid processes, and has served as Chair of the Metamorphic Studies Group (1991-3), Science Secretary of the Geological Society of London (2002-6), President of the European Association of Geochemistry (2005-6) and also President of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland (2019-20). He has held a Harkness Fellowship, at the University of Washington (1974-76) and a Humboldt Prize at GFZ Potsdam (2009-11).

Clare Warren is a Senior Lecturer and metamorphic geologist and geochronologist at the Open University, UK and has worked extensively on metamorphic rocks that form in subduction and continental collision zones. She has published a number of widely-cited papers, and has served as Treasurer and Secretary of the UK Metamorphic Studies Group and on the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Council. In 2020 she was the first recipient of the UK Metamorphic Studies Group's Barrow Award.