Journal of Petrology Volume 41 Number 10 Pages 1541-1543 2000
© Oxford University Press 2000
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Book Reviews
Determination of Structural Successions in Migmatites and Gneisses by A. M. Hopgood. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1999. xxiv + 346 pp. ISBN 0-412-75800-8. £99.00, US$170, NLG 285
Gneiss complexes form major components of continental crust throughout the world and have great significance in investigation of mechanisms for crustal growth and evolution. To obtain this information a thorough understanding of the structure is paramount. However, gneiss complexes have proven to be one of the most difficult rock associations to understand because they are commonly complexly deformed and metamorphosed. These processes are usually polyphase and often obliterate much of the primary evidence required. For example, it was only about 1970 that it become generally accepted that gneiss complexes were largely composed of deformed, intermediate, plutonic granitoids rather than melted sediments. In 1987, it was shown that some complexes may not be one contiguous piece of crust but were sequentially constructed from different blocks