Thermodynamics of Minerals and Melts by R. C. Newton; A. Navrotsky; B. J. Wood - Book Review

Abstract

The potential for the quantitative application of thermodynamic data and principles to the solution of petrologic and mineralogic problems is great and widely recognized among earth scientists. For example, given equations of state for silicate liquids and for the solid phases that crystallize from them, phase diagrams describing the melting phenomena of rocks could be calculated and the evolution of melts in planetary interiors or on planetary surfaces could be modeled without the need, as is now the case, for detailed experimentation on each composition that might be encountered. In metamorphic petrology, knowledge of the equations of state of the mineral phases found in a rock can permit precise determination of the values of such variables as the pressure and temperature at which the rock formed, essential information for deciphering the geological history of the region from which the rock came.