The initial concept of a photographic atlas on fault rocks was developed  during informal discussions at the Geological Society of America Penrose  Conference "Significance and Petrogenesis of Mylonitic Rocks" held at San  Diego, California, in spring 1981, and coconvened by the editors of this  book. Many participants felt that a new consensus about mylonites and ductile shear zones had been achieved at the conference, based largely upon the  contributions of geoscientists who brought perspectives from the laboratory  as well as from the field. In part motivated by the publication (1982) of the  Atlas of Deformational and Metamorphic Rock Fabrics (and its predecessor,  the Atlas of Rock Cleavage) both edited by G. J. Borradaile, Μ. B. Bayly, and  C. McA. Powell, we felt that a collection of photographs of features characteristic of faults and shear zones, ranging in scale from mesoscopic to microscopic to even submicroscopic, together with carefully documented locations  and regional (or experimental) information, would provide a valuable reference as well as a teaching device <...>

In October 1975 a Short Course on Feldspar Mineralogy was held at the Hotel Utah, Salt Lake City, in conjunction with the annual meetings of the Mineralogical Society of America. Richard A. Yund, David B. Stewart, Joseph V. Smith and Paul H. Ribbe presented workshops on x-ray single-crystal and powder diffraction methods and electron optical techniques as applied to the study of feldspars and presented eight lectures, the substance of which became the nine chapters of the first edition of Feldspar Mineralogy. That book was published by the Mineralogical Society as the second volume of its series entitled "Short Course Notes". <...>

High-gradel gneisses make up a significant part of the continental crust exposed in orogenic belts and in Precambrian cratons. A lot of research has been focussed on high-grade gneiss terrains because they contain a large proportion of the Earth's mineral wealth. Some of these terrains are considered to represent exhumed segments of the lower continental crust and, as such, give valuable  insight into processes of crustal genesis.

The pu rpose of th is exercise is to take the student into the field to dig in soils, to appreciate the characteristics of soil differences outlined in pages 1-40 of the textbook. This exercise can consist of several short field trips, or several half-days of describing different soils according to the format given on pages 8 and 10 of the textbook.