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A contribution to the nomenclature and classification of volcanic rocks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

E. A. K. Middlemost
E. A. K. Middlemost
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Sydney, 2006 N.S.W., Australia
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Summary

At present one is not able to devise a single, standard classification of igneous rocks that is acceptable to all petrologists. This is mainly because igneous petrology consists of an uneasy union between the descriptive science of petrography and the explanatory science of petrogenesis, and at present the latter discipline is unable to provide a coherent model, or series of models, that can account for the origin and evolution ofall igneous rocks. Some of the more significant concepts used in the classification of volcanic rocks are examined, and three separate, yet complementary, classifications are presented.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 117 , Issue 1 , January 1980 , pp. 51 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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