Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a really great book for all students who want to learn sometfing about igneous and metamorphic petrology. Written exeptionally well, with good sence of humor, it covers all the topics related to the formation and evolution of igneous and metamorphic rocks, gives you comprehensive (and comprehensible -- that is also inportant) information about rock types, their classification, textures, structures, rock forming minerals, magmaism, volcanism, metamorphism, their relationships to the tectonic settings and global lithosphere plate motion, etc. It contains so much useful information that can even been used as a handbook for those who work in or study geology, petrology, geochemistry, and geophysics. Reading this book greatly improves your understanding of the subject, so, eventually, you feel you can easily get complicated concepts and ideas, even find beauty in them, and hence enjoy your reading -- the situation which is not usually met for petrology texts.
I used this book as a textbook when I took a course in petrology last year -- and it was great help for me. And I would like to say thanks to John Winter for his really good work.

This book is one of those rare things that isn't painful to read for the sometimes heady subject matter. Winters style is even humorous at times and he keeps it very simple and straightforward. Phase diagrams are explainied in detail and there are just a lot of great visuals that help students understand the evolution of magmas and the significance of isotopes and trace elements present. We use this book at GMU and I was very happy with Winter's PP slides that are available online. Very clear, very concise and fairly easy to read.

As a former student of John Winters, I can honestly say that this book does a terrific job with a subject that can be very complicated! After reading this text (and taking his class!) I came away with a clear understanding of the concepts discussed. And, of course, a little humor here and there helps. The chapters flow well together yet can be read individually, and I plan on keeping this text for future reference. Highly recommended!

If you've got to learn Igneous Petrology and what to understand it, this is the text you want. Well laid out and organized, easy to follow.

It is a well written book, but there are no color pictures. If I spend that amount of money on a hardcover textbook, I expect some color photos, especially since mineralogy and petrology deal with birefringence colors and such.