Igneous petrology

The modern study of igneous rocks utilizes a number of techniques, some of them developed in the fields of chemistry, physics, or other earth sciences.

A more precise but still relatively inexpensive way to identify minerals (and thereby the bulk chemical composition of the rock) with a petrographic microscope.

These microscopes have polarizing plates, filters, and a conoscopic lens that allow the user to measure a variety of crystallographic properties.

Initial values of 87Sr, when the magma started fractional crystallization, might be estimated by knowing the amounts of 87Rb and 87Sr of two igneous rocks produced at different times by the same magmatic body.

Most contemporary ground breaking in igneous petrology has been published in prestigious American and British scientific journals of worldwide circulation such as Science and Nature.