Experimental Mineralogy and Petrology

History and introduction

The field of experimental mineralogy and petrology can be traced back in the geologic sciences for at least 200 years. The Scottish geologist Sir James Hall (1761-1832) is considered to be the father of experimental petrology. His experiments on the melting and crystallization of basalt were decisive in resolving the debate between the Plutonist and Neptunist schools of geologists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. However, it was the twentieth century that saw the establishment of the discipline as an integral part of the Earth Sciences. The publication of N.L. Bowen's book The Evolution of the Igneous Rocks in 1928, which was largely based on his laboratory melting experiments on simple model silicate systems, proved the power of experimentation for understanding the diversity of igneous rocks. Experimental investigations interpreted with the help of physical chemistry and applied to magmatic and metamorphic