Mind over magma: the story of igneous petrology

The foundational era

1. Breath-pipes and ignivomous mountains

early concepts of volcanism

2. Basaltes prismatiques

lava, columnar basalt, and ancient volcanoes

3. Fire or water?

the debate over the origin of basalt

4. The "insolently triumphant dogma"

the collapse of the concept of aqueous basalt

5. Subterraneous lava

the recognition of intrusive granite

The primitive era

6. Wet or dry?

the origin of granite

7. Classes and orders

petrography and classification in the early nineteenth century

8. Basalt and trachyte

early theories of diversity

The microscope era

9. Minute objects, great conclusions

the rise of microscopic petrography

10. Basalt or melaphyre?

igneous rocks in time

11. Provinces and plugs

igneous rocks in space

12. Spaltung und kerne

the emergence of the theory of differentiation

13. Physical chemistry and petrology

the mechanism of differentiation

14. The language of petrology

nomenclature and classification

15. Meldometers and thermocouples

early experimental petrology

The experimental era

16. Clearing the mists

the theory of crystallization-differentiation

17. An unsurpassed natural laboratory

differentiated sills and layered intrusions

18. Cone sheets and cauldrons

the mechanics of igneous intrusion

19. Magma or emanations?

the beginnings of the granite controversy

20. Pontiffs and soaks

the resolution of the granite controversy

21. Modes and norms

classification in crisis

The geochemical era

22. Structures and spectra

the geochemical revolution in petrology

23. The sea below, the heavens above

the extension of petrology

24. Delta and epsilon

stable and radiogenic isotopes in igneous petrogenesis

25. Mathematical modeling

trace-element studies in igneous petrogenesis

26. Bombs and buffers

experimental petrology after Bowen

27. Classification salvaged?

IUGS to the rescue

The fluid dynamical era

28. Rayleigh and Reynolds

the fluid dynamics of magma chambers

Paradigm lost, paradigm regained?

cumulate theory under fire

30. Past and future

some concluding remarks.