This book is about metamorphic rocks: the processes involved in their formation and the reasons why they occur at particular places on the continents. It has been written to serve as an elementary text on the subjects of metamorphism and mountain building for non-specialist students of geology. It will be equally useful where geology is either the main or subsidiary subject and could be used by students intending to advance further in geology (the list of advanced texts in the further reading section would be more appropriate to such students). My intention in writing this book has been to try to dispel the notion that metamorphism comprises the 'haunted wing' of geology. Admittedly, there are rather a large number of technical terms in the book, but I hope that after working through it you will not find metamorphism an unduly difficult or obscure aspect of geology. Throughout, I have emphasised the strong links between mountain building, plate tectonics and metamorphic processes

METAMORPHISM is the mineralogical and structural (textural) adjustment of (dominantly) solid rocks to physical and chemical conditions which differ from those under which the rocks originated. Weathering and similar processes are conventionally excluded. The type of metamorphism depends on the relative values of temperature ( T ) , confining pressure (/*con)> pressure or chemical activity or fugacity of water (expressed generally as PHJO)* deformation or directed pressures (P^ir) and their variation with time {t). There is only a limited degree of interdependence of these controls and the metamorphic history of a rock is an expression of their mutual interaction with time (Fyfe, Turner and Verhoogen, 1958; Pitcher and Flinn, 1965). <...>

In the foreword of the volume Mantle Metasomatism by Menzies & Hawkesworth (1987), Boettcher stated that the concept of mantle metasomatism has been of immense heuristic value for Earth scientists. At that time, metasomatism was still strongly related to allochemical metamorphism, where chemical composition of the rock is changed by the additional or removal of material.

In this book, the authors present current research in the study of the classification, geology and exploration of asteroids and meteorites. Topics discussed include meteorites and their asteroidal parent bodies; the diversion and exploitation of ice-rich NEOs using the solar collector; radar characteristics of asteroid 33342 (1998 WT24); asteroid dimensions and the truncated pareto distribution; Hilda asteroids in the Jupiter neighborhood; and asteroid Apophis and 1950 DA.