The nature and origin of granite / Природа и происхождение гранита

The origin of granite has for long fascinated geologists though serious debate on the topic may be said to date from a famous meeting of the Geological Society of France in 1847. My own introduction to the subject began exactly one hundred years later when, in an interview with Professor H.H. Read, I entered his study as an amateur fossil collector and left it as a committed granite petrologist - after just ten minutes! I can hardly aspire to convert my reader in so dramatic a way, yet this book is an attempt, however inadequate, to pass on the enthusiasm that I inherited, and which has been reinforced by innumerable discussions on the outcrop with granitologists of many nationalities and of many shades of opinion. Since the 1960s, interest in granites has been greatly stimulated by the thesis that granites image their source rocks in the inaccessible deep crust, and that their diversity is the result of varying global tectonic context. So great a body of new data and new ideas has accumulated that my attempt to review the whole field of granite studies must carry with it a possible charge of arrogance, especially as I have adopted the teaching device of presenting the material from a personal point of view with its thinly disguised prejudices. This seemed the only way to escape from a textbook format to one of self-contained essays, each covering a specific facet or problem, yet contributing to a connected story highlighting the central themes of tectonic control, source rock imaging and the multifactorial nature of all those processes that produce 'granites and granites'. Despite this personal approach, discussion is based on actual examples, many of which I have examined in the field and laboratory under the guidance of the particular researchers. Furthermore I have tried to avoid unnecessary jargon and to provide a path through the ever-accumulating thicket of literature which threatens to overwhelm the very science it aims to report. I can only hope that this overall, holistic approach will intrigue the specialist, stimulate the student and interest the general reader. <...>