Why does the Peru-Chile Trench, which extends along almost the entire west coast of South America, have only three segments of volcanism? How deep can researchers currently go in simulations of the earth"s mantle? McBirney (geology, U. of Oregon) takes a comprehensive view of all things igneous in this well-illustrated undergraduate text designed for a one-semester course. He describes how the earth"s crust and mantle evolved and how magma continues to be generated, then covers magmas and igneous rocks, crystal-liquid relations, igneous minerals and their textures, the mechanisms and effects of magmatic intrusions and their expression across a variety of terrain, basalts and magma series, oceanic magmatism and flood basalts, magmatism at convergent plate boundaries, granitic plutons and siliceous ignimbrites, and the relation of magmatism to the continental interiors. Mcirney has updated this edition to include the latest in technologies and research. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)