Atlas of igneous rocks and their textures A companion volume to the Atlas of Rock-forming Minerals in Thin Section, this full-colour handbook is designed to be used as a laboratory manual both by elementary students of earth sciences undertaking a study of igneous rocks in thin section under the microscope, and by more advanced students and teachers as a reference work. The book is divided into two parts — Part One is devoted to photographs of many of the common textures found in igneous rocks with brief descriptions accompanying each photograph. Part Two illustrates the appearance of examples of some sixty of the commonest (and a few not so common) igneous rock types; each photograph is accompanied by a brief description of the field of view shown. Nearly 300 full-colour photographs are included, and in many cases the same view is shown both in plane-polarized light and under crossed polars. A brief account of how thin sections can be prepared is included as an appendix. It is believed that the amateur geologist using these instructions will be able to make his own thin sections and, with the aid of a relatively simple microscope, enjoy the study of rocks in thin section.

Migmatites are spectacular, complex-looking rocks that can inspire, fascinate, or confuse geologists. All migmatites viewed in an outcrop represent the sum of a series of processes that acted in parallel, or sequentially, and the influence of various local factors (see the photographs in section A). In order to begin to understand the complexity and seemingly endless variety in migmatites, and to provide the reader context for the subject of this book, some of the key factors and processes that make individual migmatites the way they are should be outlined at the outset <...>

The Atlas of Minerals and Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks in Thin-Section provides the geology student and geoscientist with a stunning new color atlas of the main rock-forming minerals and igneous and metamorphic rocks in thin-section.

Almost forty years have elapsed since Leonard Wills published his 'Palaeogeographical Atlas of the British Isles'; those forty years have seen a revolution in the earth sciences which has overturned many earlier ideas in geology. Palaeogeography has been affected just as much as other parts of the subject by this change.
The advent of the plate tectonic theory has transformed our ideas of the Lower Palaeozoic palaeogeographical evolution of the British area and has rendered totally obsolete many aspects of Wills' maps. The application of plate tectonics has caused us to produce totally new palaeogeographical models for the late Precambrian and early Palaeozoic, and has emphasised that definitive palaeogeographies for this time interval cannot yet be compiled. Wills was at pains to point out that his Atlas was an 'Aunt Sally' at which to 'hurl one's own and other field observations'--our atlas too must be viewed in that light. <...>