2007 Handbooks

This unit considers the processes by which rocks become deformed and altered in response to physical conditions in the Earth's crust, such as stress, geothermal gradient and burial-history. Scales range from microscopic to regional. Practical work comprises exercises on geometrical and kinematic analysis of brittle and ductile structures, superposed folding, reconstruction of large structures, deformational and metamorphic textures, metamorphic mineral assemblages, and laboratory and project work on metamorphic and structural styles in different tectonic environments (convergent, wrench and extensional). Field study in well-exposed rocks of the New England Fold Belt provides both experience in unraveling the history of a typical complex part of the Australian continent and practice in detailed structural mapping of brittle and ductile structures (relevant to the minerals and geotechnology professions).