Detailed multidisciplinary studies on mafic dyke swarms play a crucial role in solving geodynamic problems of Earth’s history. Professor Henry C. Halls recognized the importance of dyke swarms long ago and organized the first International Dyke Conference focusing on geological, geochemical, and geophysical aspects of dykes and related units in Toronto, Canada, in 1985. Given the new insights arising during that conference, it was decided that International Dyke Conferences (IDCs) should be held every 5 years. Consequently, IDC-2 was held in Australia in 1990, IDC-3 in Israel in 1995, IDC-4 in South Africa in 2001, IDC-5 in Finland in 2005, and IDC-6 in India in 2010. Each IDC also produced a proceedings volume (apart from IDC-4 whose contributions were published as part of the IDC-5 volume) (Halls and Fahrig 1987; Parker et al. 1990; Baer and Heimann 1995; Hanski et al. 2006; Srivastava 2011).<...>

We have a peculiar and very misguided view of our planet as a solid lump of rock. This misconception is based on our everyday experience of standing on something that seems eternal and largely unchanging. If it were not for periodic earthquakes or occasional, somewhat inconveniencing eruptions, we might forget entirely that in truth, we live on a thin skin of cool rock floating on a torrid sea of malleable material. <...>

Iron is a remarkable element in its relatively high abundance for its mass and its sensitivity to (and control of) redox on a planetary scale over geologic time. Numerous volumes have been written on iron geochemistry, and here we provide an in-depth review of iron geochemistry from the isotopic perspective. Stable iron isotope geochemistry is a relatively new field, belonging to what is sometimes called “non-traditional” stable isotopes. There have been a number of reviews of this field of isotope geochemistry, the most recent of which is found in Teng et al. (2017) in their Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry volume 82, published by the Mineralogical Society of America and the Geochemical Society. In chapter 11 of this volume, Dauphas et al. (2017) review iron isotope systematics. <...>

This book is partially derived from—and based upon—a course by the same name that I used to deliver at Queen’s University in Canada. It was a course that I loved teaching, but it was not always very straightforward for students: they found it at first intimidating (Isotopes? What’s that?), then complex, then downright difficult. However, by the end of the course each and every student learned to appreciate the significance and importance of isotopes when used as an investigative tool in the natural sciences.

The classification tables are complemented by the new mineral species, that were discoveried at 2007-2016 years [4], [50].The formulae of some mineral species were corrected and some mineral species were transfered to another taxons on account of the appearance of new data about the chemical composition or the crystal structures. Structural-chemical systematic of minerals is representative of recent data on connection between chemical composition and crystal structures and properties of minerals,conditions of mineral formations, paragenesis. The chemical signs are the basis of structural-chemical systematic. The crystal structures of mineral consider on the middle and low-level taxons, but not on the high-level taxons, because the mineral structure is depend on chemical composition and physical-chemical parameters of mineralforming systems.

The classification tables are given, which include near by 5000 mineral species. This enables to use developed classification for scientific and practical purposes.

This book designed for the wide circle of mineralogists, petrographers, geochemists, students of geolodical institutions and colleges.

Thermodynamics has played a major role in improving our understanding of natural processes and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In fact, a course in thermodynamics has now become a part of Geosciences curriculum in many Institutions despite the fact that a formal thermodynamics course is taught in every other department of physical sciences, and also in departments of Chemical Engineering, Materials Sciences, and Biological Sciences. The reason thermodynamics is taught in a variety of departments, probably more so than any other subject, is that its principles have wide ranging applications but the teaching of thermodynamics also needs special focus depending on the problems in a particular field. <...>

Results of theoretical analysis and experimental investigations for transport in porous media are presented. A new approach to modelling of transport in porous media is developed and a number of new percolation models is considered. The models allow to obtain analytical correlations for relative phase permeabilities for different porous media. Different methods of intensification of economic minerals based on new physical effects of reconstruction of the rock's pore space structure, are analysed.

The monograph is of interest for reservoir and chemical engineers, for specialists in reservoir characterization and simulation, for core analysts and researchers, and for post-graduate students in the above-mentioned areas.

Rock metamorphism is a geological process that changes the mineralogical and chemical composition, as well as the structure of rocks. Metamorphism is typically associated with elevated temperature and pressure, thus it affects rocks within the earth’s crust and mantle. The process is driven by changing physical and/or chemical conditions in response to large-scale geological dynamics. Consequently, it is inherent in the term, that metamorphism always is related to a precursor state where the rocks had other mineralogical and structural attributes. Metamorphism, metamorphic processes and mineral transformations in rocks at elevated temperatures and pressures are fundamentally associated with chemical reactions in rocks. Metamorphism does not include, by definition, similar processes that occur near the earth’s surface such as weathering, cementation and diagenesis. The transition to igneous processes is gradual, and metamorphism may include partial melting. The term metasomatism is used if modification of the rocks bulk composition is the dominant metamorphic process. Metamorphic rocks are rocks that have developed their mineralogical and structural characteristics by metamorphic processes <...>

Various simple and advanced models exist for mechanisms of uniform and non-uniform sediment compaction that increases density and reduces porosity. While the classical Athy’s relation on depth-wise exponential reduction of porosity is not divided into any distinct stages, the Hedberg’s model involves four stages. Weller’s model utilized Athy’s and Hedberg’s relations to deduce a sediment compaction model. Power’s compaction model additionally considers clay mineralogy. Several other porosity/compaction models exist, e.g., those by Teodorovich and Chernov, Burst, Beall, and Overton and Zanier. The geometry of the depth-wise porosity profile depends on the sedimentation rate, compaction mechanism and pressure solution model. This chapter reviews porosity variation with depth for the following rock types: shales, shaly sandstones, sandstones and carbonates. <...>

Fluvial deposits represent the preserved record of one of the major nonmarine environments. They accumulate in large and small intermontane valleys, in the broad valleys of trunk rivers, in the wedges of alluvial fans flanking areas of uplift, in the outwash plains fronting melting glaciers, and in coastal plains. The nature of alluvial assemblages - their lithofacies composition, vertical stratigraphic record, and architecture - reflect an interplay of many processes, from the wandering of individual channels across a floodplain, to the long-term effects of uplift and subsidence. Fluvial deposits are a sensitive indicator of tectonic processes, and also carry subtle signatures of the climate at the time of deposition. They are the hosts for many petroleum and mineral deposits. This book is about all these subjects.