Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:14:34.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Two centuries after Hutton's ‘Theory of the Earth’: the status of granite science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

D. Barrie Clarke
D. Barrie Clarke
Affiliation:
D. Barrie Clarke, Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia,Canada B3H 3J5. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Granite is the final product of the high-temperature, magmatic, predominantly endogenic, chemical differentiation of the earth. Our understanding of the origin and evolution of granitoid rocks comes from a combination of direct observation, analogue experimentation and numerical modelling. A brief historical overview shows an exceptional level of such research activity over the last 50 years. The number and complexity of questions have resulted in both an absolute and a relative growth of the science since the plate tectonic revolution, largely consisting of refining the current magmatic paradigm within its overarching context. Current research activity involves large components of mineralogical–petrological–geochemical and structural–tectonic work, with much lower levels of experimental, geophysical and geochronological investigations. Many important questions concerning the thermal, physical and chemical aspects of the origin and evolution of granites remain. In keeping with the general progress of science, the complexity of the questions, the declining financial support and the revolution in information technology, directions of granite research in the foreseeable future will change from concrete and qualitative to abstract and quantitative, from expensive and active to cheap and armchair, from reductionist to holistic, and from periodic communication to continuous communication.

Keywords

historyphilosophyKuhnparadigmanomaliesfuture research
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 87 , Issue 1-2: Third Hutton Symposium. The Origin of Ganites and Related Rocks , 1996 , pp. 353 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, M. 1994. The generation, segregation ascent and emplacement of granite magma: the migmatite-to-crustally-derived granite connection in thickened orogens. EARTH SCI REV 36, 83–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, M.&Piccoli, P. M. 1995. The origin of granites and related rocks: Third Hutton Symposium abstracts. U.S. GEOL SURV CIRC 1129, 170 pp.Google Scholar
Clarke, D. B. 1992. Granitoid rocks. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Dean, D. R. 1992. James Hutton and the history of geology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DePaolo, D. J. 1981. Trace element and isotopic effects of combined wallrock assimilation and fractional crystallization. EARTH PLANET SCI LETT 53, 189–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, R. N. 1984. Understanding scientific reasoning, 2nd edn. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Guglielmo, G. 1993. Interference between pluton expansion and non-coaxial tectonic deformation: three-dimensional computer model and field implications. J STRUCT GEOL 15, 593–608CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guglielmo, G. 1994. Interference between pluton expansion and coaxial tectonic deformation: three-dimensional computer model and field implications. J STRUCT GEOL 16, 237–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, A. 1945. Natural history of granite. NATURE 155, 412–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoyningen-Huene, P. 1993. Reconstructing scientific revolutions: Thomas Kuhn's philosophy of science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hutton, J. 1785. System of the earth, its duration, and stability. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH, abstract.Google Scholar
Hutton, J. 1795. Theory of the earth with proof and illustrations. I and II. Edinburgh: Creech.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. 1970. The structure of scientific revolutions. 2nd edn. INT ENCYCL UNIFIED SCIENCE 2, No. 2, 210 pp.Google Scholar
Lessing, D. 1993. African laughter—four visits to Zimbabwe. Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
Lyell, C. 1830-1833. Principles of geology: being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation, Vols 1–3. London: J. Murray.Google Scholar
Pitcher, W. S. 1987. Granites and yet more granites, forty years on. GEOL RUNDSCH 76, 51–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitcher, W. S. 1993. The nature and origin of granite. Glasgow: Blackie Academic & Professional.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popper, K. R. 1992. The logic of scientific discovery. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Read, H. H. 1948. Granites and granites. GEOL SOC AM MEM 28, 1–19.Google Scholar
Zen, E-an 1992. Thermal modelling of stepwise anatexis in a thrust-thickened sialic crust. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 79, 223–35.Google Scholar