Igneous rock associations 22. Experimental petrology: Methods, examples, and applications

Abstract

Experiments are an important source of basic information in petrology, from thermodynamic data used to develop predictive models to physical property data used to understand magma ascent and eruption. Since we all use experimental data in our work as geoscientists, it is important that we have a basic understanding of the methods used to prepare and perform experiments on rocks and minerals and their synthetic analogues. In this review I examine how the observational science of geology changed in the late 1800’s with the development of the interdisciplinary science of physical chemistry. The second part of the paper discusses what factors need to be considered in designing an experimental study; it focuses particularly on the problems of reaching equilibrium on the short timescales available in the laboratory. In the final section, I give four examples of geological problems that have been solved using experimental methods and make some suggestions about the directions that future experimental campaigns might take.