A Pictorial Guide to Metamorphic Rocks in the Field

Abstract

Book Review: A Pictorial Guide to Metamorphic Rocks in the Field. By Kurt Hollocher (2014) CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 326 pages, ISBN: 9781138026308, print $42.46, eBook $34.97. I will begin by stating that I like this book. The book is really all about recognizing and interpreting textures of metamorphic rocks and it succeeds with abundant high-quality outcrop photographs, photomicrographs, and illustrations. I am sure this book will be a helpful supplement for many students of geology, regardless of whether they practice in the field or behind the eyepiece of the petrographic microscope. The textures illustrated in the book include those that form from the deformation and recrystallization that accompanies metamorphism and relict features from sedimentary or magmatic protoliths. The variation of natural metamorphic textures is enormous, so no book will be able to illustrate them all, but this book shows the most common as well as a few more exotic textural examples. The book has 25 chapters that are organized into three parts: (1) Metamorphic rock types—13 chapters; (2) Metamorphic features—8 chapters; and (3) Relict pre-metamorphic features—3 chapters. There is also a reference list and a glossary of terms at the end of the book. Chapter 1 is set apart from the three parts of the book and is …