This book offers a very good introduction to igneous petrology. It starts out with a chapter about phase diagrams, which gives an excellent survey of common petrological systems. It continues with chapters on chemical proporties of different elemants, among these an excellent chapter on trace elements and radiometric datings. After this, the book goes into all the common rock-types, e.g. there's a chapter on peridotites and mantle composition, MORB basalts, OIBs, anorogenic granites, kimberlites etc.

Hess is very concise, and it may be somewhat difficult to grasp all the points in first reading, but if you take the time, there is indeed a great deal of points to get. Note however, that a knowledge of common mineralogy and basical petrology is necessary. The best about this book is, that it doesn't just list the theories and say 'that's how it is' - the observations are listed, and then everything is discussed and explained - all the reasoning behind the theories.
This book is from 1989 and is still going strong. If a new edition was made, that would be perfect.

En este texto se muetran las multiples aplicaciones clínicas del titanio, con exelentes imágen fotográficas e innovadoras técnicas.

Antonio Marino E.

I find this book excellent for those undergraduate students taking petrology and petrography courses.The way the chapters are organized, follows an scheme that goes beyond the typical three-fold classification of rocks and the information is presented in an attractive, friendly fashion.

The first four parts of the book give the reader the basics for the description and interpretation of rock forming processes, with lots of useful drawings and excellent pictures. These are the keys to the understanding of any of the remainder chapters.

Some of the sections from the first four parts deserve to be highlited. The whole section about optical mineralogy is excellent and goes right to the essentials. The chapter referring to the physical attributes of rocks is very useful; the chapter on textural interpretation is very interesting and gives the reader a new perspective of petrographic analysis.

The remainig of the book deals with all rock types describing the processes that give rise to them and always emphasizing the textural features of each rock type and the imprints of every process.

Examples in thin section are abundant throughout the book, as well as sketches and drawings. Field examples are few but descriptive.

A final word. This book describes the processes but does not put them into a plate tectonic context, and does not give the reader a lot of experimental geochemical data. And it's not intended to do that. However, using this book as the basis to go further, or side-by-side with any text which deals with rocks in a tectonic framework, will provide the reader with a better understanding of the rock-forming processes and of geology itself.

This is a great book, chok full of information about the search and recovery of minerals in America. It contains more than 1,000 photos, providing a photo history greater than in any book I know of.

If you have any interest in mining, try to get your hands on this book. It's great!

This is not an easy book to read. It predates Agriccola's De Re Metallica by several years, and has not yet made the bridge of thought from alchemy into chemistry. As a result, the section on fireworks speaks of principles of air and such to explain how they work.

Additionally, many of the usages are different than we think of them today. For example, in the production of Aqua Fortis (nitric acid), one of the steps involves the use of red alum. After 10 years of research, I finally figured out that this referred to alunite, a mineral alum found in a certain mine in Italy which contained a high level of iron.

Given the difficulty in interpreting what is being said, it is still an invaluable book to researchers in the field. It contains valuable information about the thought and processes in use in Italian metallurgy in the 16th century.

This book is one of the best illustrated works devoted to making wax models for jewelry that I have purchased. I have been making jewelry models for over 30 years and still discovered textural techniques and materials in Practical Wax Modeling that I was not familiar with previously. Due to the fact that the authors are Japanese, the book reflects their design and technique approach. This work covers a wide range of tools, and details both the carving and build up of wax models. I would recommend this book as a valuable addition to any jewelry maker's library.

I highly reccomend this book. This book divided into several short chapters providing concise reviews on basic science and clinical diseases of bone. The book is well written and has many useful tables. This book is the official primer published by the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. It is writen by many intenationally known scientists in the field of bone and mineral research. It is a book that belongs to any physician caring for patients with bone diseases not limited to osteoporosis.

This is an earlier edition of Field Collecting Gemstones and Minerals. Both are excellent, so if this one is hard to find, it may be simpler to get Field Collecting Gemstones and Minerals (see its review).

Tomie de Paola, a talented and prolific author perhaps best known for Strega Nona, has another winner here. The text is clear, packed with information, and humorous. DePaola keeps his young readers diverted by using a fictional device: a little girl is sinking in quicksand while a boy proceeds to lecture on the subject-- at length-- until the last minute. Of course, she gets her revenge in the end and the readers are lefted wiser and happier. I wish more children's nonfiction authors would appreciate how much information children will sit still for -- even enjoy -- if it is presented imaginatively.

This work reviews the efforts of seven Americans and their motivations for developing the rail systems and mines of Mexico. Although published in 1958, it is still one of the best works on this subject. The seven Americans covered are General William Rosecrans, Edward Plumb, Albert K. Owen, U.S. Grant, Alexander Shepherd, William Greene, and Arthur Stilwell. They came from different backgrounds and achieved different levels of success in Mexico. Some went bankrupt. In the end, the Mexican Revolution removed the chance to make large returns on capital investments. There are footnotes, but no bibliography. This is worth the time for anybody interested in the history of Mexico or of railroads.