This book is intended primarily for exploration geologists and post graduate students attending specialist courses in mineral exploration. Exploration geologists are engaged not only in the search for new mineral deposits, but also in the extension and re-assessment of existing ones. To succeed in these tasks, the exploration geologist is required to be a "generalist" of the Earth sciences rather than a specialist. The exploration geologist needs to be familiar with most aspects of the geology of ore deposits, and detailed knowledge as well as experience play an all important role in the successful exploration for mineral commodities. In order to achieve this, it is essential that the exploration geologist be up to date with the latest developments in the evolution of concepts and ideas in the Earth sciences. This is no easy task, as thousands of publications appear every year in an ever increasing number of journals, periodicals and books. For this reason it is also difficult, at times, to locate appropriate references on a particular mineral deposit type, although this problem is alleviated by the existence of large bibliographic data bases of geological records, abstracts and papers on computers. During my teaching to explorationists and, indeed, during my years of work as an explorationist, the necessity of having a text dealing with the fundamental aspects of hydrothermal mineral deposits has always been compelling. Metallic mineral deposits can be categorised into three great families, namely: (I) magmatic; (2) sedimentary and residual; (3) hydrothermal.

The eruption of deep-seated xenoliths in basaltic, alnoitic, kimberlitic, etc volcanoes provides the geologist with an important direct means of examining the fragments of the earth's mantle and lower crust.

A comprehensive guide to carbon inside Earth - its quantities, movements, forms, origins, changes over time and impact on planetary processes. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Fluid-aided mass transfer and subsequent mineral re-equilibration are the two defining features of metasomatism and must be present in order for metamorphism to occur. Coupled with igneous and tectonic processes, metasomatism has played a major role in the formation of the Earth’s continental and oceanic crust and lithospheric mantle as well as in their evolution and subsequent stabilization. Metasomatic processes can include ore mineralization, metasomatically induced alteration of oceanic lithosphere, mass transport in and alteration of subducted oceanic crust and overlying mantle wedge, which has subsequent implications regarding mass transport, fluid flow, and volatile storage in the lithospheric mantle overall, as well as both regional and localized crustal metamorphism. Metasomatic alteration of accessory minerals such as zircon or monazite can allow for the dating of metasomatic events as well as give additional information regarding the chemistry of the fluids responsible. Lastly present day movement of fluids in both the lithospheric mantle and deep to mid crust can be observed utilizing geophysical resources such as electrical resistivity and seismic data. Such observations help to further clarify the picture of actual metasomatic processes as inferred from basic petrographic, mineralogical, and geochemical data. The goal of this volume is to bring together a diverse group of geologists, each of whose specialities and long range experience regarding one or more aspects of metasomatism during geologic processes, should allow them to contribute to a series of review chapters, which outline the basis of our current understanding of how metasomatism influences and helps to control both the evolution and stability of the crust and lithospheric mantle.

The variety of volcanic activity in the Solar System is widely recognised, yet the majestic sequences of magmatic processes that operate within an active planet are much less well known. Providing an exposition of igneous rocks, magmas and volcanic erupsions, this book brings together magnetic and volcanic data from different tectonic settings, and planets, with explanations of how they fit together. It systematically examines composition, origin and evolution of common igneous rocks, yet also examines a variety of rare magnetic rocks that play a crucial role in the global magma/igneous rock system.

Phoscorites are dark, often very handsome, sometimes economically valuable, magnetite-apatite-silicate rocks, almost always associated with carbonatite. They are key to understanding the longstanding question of how carbonate and carbonate-bearing magmas rise to the crust and the Earths surface. Despite this, they have been given little attention; a search on geological literature databases will produce thousands of references to carbonatite (up to 4125 on Georef) but not more than thirty references to phoscorite. This book goes some way to redress this balance. Over recent years many European and North American scientists have studied Kola rocks in collaboration with Russian colleagues. The idea for this book came from one such project funded by the European organisation, INTAS (Grant No 97-0722). The Kola Peninsula is one of the outstanding areas in the World for the concentration and economic importance of alkaline rocks. However, Russian work on the Kola complexes is still relatively unknown and a particular aim of this book, as well as presenting current research, is to make this knowledge accessible to English language readers. A large exploration programme on Kola alkaline rocks was active from 1950 to 1990 and involved teams of geologists who studied many kilometres of drill core and carried out detailed mineralogical and petrological studies.