GEOL2213/2215 Igneous Petrology
This is the webpage for GEOL2213/2215 - Igneous products and processes. Course outlines and lecture notes are available through the Desire2Learn website.
Links
For some excellent discussion about the origins and nature of mantle plumes and hotspot volcanism with a strong emphasis on whether or not they exist visit mantleplumes.org. This site includes some good discussion on the origin of komatiites.
The USGS web site includes a detailed discussion of volcanic hazards as well as maintaining lists of ongoing eruptions and a series of volcanic observatories in places like Alaska, Hawaii, Yellowstone and the Cascades.
As discussed in class the Volcanoworld website is another excellent resource for information about volcanoes and is the source of some of the animations used in my lectures.
There are some great satellite photos of the newly formed volcanic island at Home Reef, Tonga here and some photos of the associated pumice rafts here.
The Smithsonian Global Volcanism project has created a Google Earth placemark file that shows the location of all Holocene volcanoes.
Learning Aids
The University of Sydney geology department has an excellent dictionary and review tool you can access here, it includes sections on rock and mineral identification as well as mapping and general terminology. Brock University has some good material on the optical properties of minerals including photomicrographs, while the University of North Carolina maintains an excellent collection of photomicrographs which includes key minerals and igneous textures. Use these sites to help you become familiar with the material you encounter in the labs.