00799 - Petrography

Learning outcomes

To learn how to recognize rocks, structures and main rock-forming minerals. To give each rock type its proper name.

Course contents

1 - Petrography: goals and methods.
2 - What is a rock? The rock cycle, petrogenetic proccesses, main rock-forming minerals.
3 - Magmatic rocks. Chemical and physical features of silicatic magma; crystallization and evolution of magmas within the Earth's crust (intrusive rocks) or on the Earth's surface (volcanic rocks). Description of minerals and structures on hand-samples.
4 - Sedimentary rocks. Fundamental classification: clastic, chemical and biological. Weathering, transport and lithification. Structures. Classification.
5 - Metamorphic rocks. What control the metamorphic process? Metamorphic types and grade. Structures in deformed metamorphic rocks: foliation, schistosity, lineation. IUGS classification.
6 - Studying rocks in the lab. Refresher on the use of the polarizing optical microscope. What is a thin section. Identification of minerals, microstructures and alteration products in thin section.

Readings/Bibliography

D'Argenio, Innocenti e Sassi, Introduzione allo studio delle rocce, UTET Torino, 1994.

Morbidelli L., Le rocce e i loro costituenti, 2 ed., Bardi Editore, 2005.

Deer W.A., Howie R.A., Zussman J., Introduzione ai minerali che costituiscono le rocce, Zanichelli Bologna, 1994.

Adams A.E., Mackenzie W.S. e Guilford C., Atlante delle rocce sedimentarie al microscopio, Zanichelli Bologna, 1988.

Mackenzie W.S., Donaldson Ch e Guilford C., Atlante delle rocce magmatiche e delle loro tessiture, Zanichelli Bologna, 1990.

Yardley B.W.D., Mackenzie W.S. e Guilford C., Atlante delle rocce metamorfiche e delle loro microstrutture. Zanichelli Bologna, 1992.

Peccerillo Angelo e Perugini Diego, Introduzione alla petrografia ottica. Con CD-ROM. Morlacchi Editore, 2003.

Teaching methods

Classes
Laboratory practical work on rock and thin sections (Ravenna and Bologna collections)
Seminars
Field trip

Assessment methods

(A) Review test on the topics covered during the class lessons.
(B) Written description of two rock types.
Final grade: (A) score + evaluation of (B)

Teaching tools

PC and videoprojection devices
Polarizing optical microscopes
Rock samples and thin sections (ravenna and Bologna collections)
Internet-based datasets

Links to further information

http://www.geomin.unibo.it/Personale/Pagine/template_docente.aspx?pagina=braga

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Braga