Determination of Structural Successions in Migmatites and Gneisses

This text deals specifically with the procedures used in the analysis of structural relationships and the determination of structural successions in complexly deformed rocks such as migmatites and gneisses. The establishment of structural successions enables: the rigorous control of the dating of specific events in the deformational history by constraining the sites of the dated rocks within the structural succession; the establishment of the time span of orogenic events throughout the structural succession, and the rate of orogenic processes; their comparison to be used as a basis for correlation between dismembered and separated crustal segments in continental reconstructions; the resolution of the complex relationships between deformed ore bodies and host rocks in high grade terranes, and hence determination of the structural control of ore bodies, a part of any successful geological exploration, and a precondition to efficient exploitation. With this approach, and the use of practical field examples from various parts of the world, this work should form a valuable reference resource for postgraduates, lecturers and researchers in the structural and isotope geology of high-grade metamorphic terranes, as well as for exploration and survey geologists working in the field.