Overview
Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks is an online resource for learning igneous and metamorphic petrology. In many ways it is like printed petrology textbooks in that it introduces the fundamental concepts of petrology to students who are taking their first course with a focus on igneous and metamorphic rocks. However, it is different in concept from a paper textbook in that readers are provided with study tools to engage actively as they read and explore information about igneous and metamorphic rocks. For example, readers are given control over phase diagrams with buttons, sliders, and mouseover effects. They can select data or upload their own data to be plotted on a variety of geochemical diagrams. There is an extensive visual Rock Library to use as examples or reference. And interactive questions are provided to provide feedback on concept understanding. Throughout, the emphasis is on interactivity, rather than

Under Construction
This website is under construction! More content is added almost daily. There has not been significant editing by others. I am writing the code as well as assembling the content. There are links that will not work. There are typos and errors. But there is also a lot of content and many good instructional tools. I am making it broadly available now because of the pandemic that is leading many colleges and universities to switch to online instruction. The long-term plan is to have the textbook hosted by MSA and available to student members. I need your help to speed the process and to make the website better.

Report Errors
Please note and tell me (jbrady@smith.edu) about typographical errors, broken links, and errors of fact or interpretation. I will try to fix them as I learn about them. I also welcome ideas about ways to improve or expand the website. Read on.

Contribute Photos
The rock library and rock naming sections will be more useful with more rock photos. In particular, please send me good photos of outcrops, rock samples, and thin sections in ppl and xpl, as well as permission to use them. I will add the photos to the library along with the metadata you send and give you credit for the images. The more information you provide about the rocks in the images, the more useful the images will be to students using the website. If the images are of rocks studied in a paper, please send the reference. If you have location information (latitude and longitude), that makes the images more valuable. If you have a mode, if you have an age, if you have a story about the rock, I will include those data in the library entry. Be sure to include scales in or approximate scale information with your photos. Send the images in the highest pixel resolution you have.

Suggest Web Links
The advantage of a website is that it can use or link to interesting and useful information, images, and videos on other websites. Please send me links to information online that you find useful and think would be helpful in learning petrology. I will add the links where appropriate, incorporating images as links or directly if permission can be obtained. I would also like more general earth science links that could be used in the Procrastinate Now list.

Submit Activities
The website will be more useful if it contains more student-active learning modules. If you have a problem set or assignment that works with diagrams or data that you are willing to share, I would like to consider making it available on this website and give you credit for it. I do not promise to take all offers of material, but I hope there will be many activities for teachers and students to choose from. I am particularly interested in activities that have good learning goals and that encourage students to make use of the tools provided on the website. If the data used in the student activity are taken from a published paper available for follow-up reading, the activity will be especially useful. If a new or modified interactive diagram or computational tool is needed, I will consider making it. Share your good activity ideas and many will benefit.

Why Study Petrology
In the Petrology Topics section, the first page is "Why Study Petrology." I would like to add many more reasons to the list of randomly accessed answers. If you have an image and question, or perhaps a video or video link and a question, that you think would be good, please send them to me. Also, I hope to add short (10-30 seconds?) videos of petrologists answering this question. If you like this website, consider sending me a short video of you with one of your personal favorite reasons for studying petrology.

Additional Reading
My principal goal in creating this website is to use the power of browsers and the internet help undergraduate students learn petrology. Therefore, my focus has been to create interactive diagrams and other learning tools, not to attempt to match the more thorough coverage of igneous and metamorphic petrology in the many outstanding printed petrology textbooks. For those who wish to use this website as their course textbook, I recommend using additional readings from Elements (links provided) and other sources that suit the particular class. Student membership in MSA ($20/year) provides access to all Elements and American Mineralogist papers.

Thanks in advance for your help!
--John Brady