Quantifying the timescales of current geological processes is critical for constraining the physical mechanisms operating on the Earth today. Since the Earth’s origin 4.55 billion years ago magmatic processes have continued to shape the Earth, producing the major reservoirs that exist today (core, mantle, crust, oceans and atmosphere) and promoting their continued evolution. But key questions remain. When did the core form and how quickly? How are magmas produced in the mantle, and how rapidly do they travel towards the surface? How long do magmas reside in the crust, differentiating and interacting with the host rocks to yield the diverse set of igneous rocks we see today? How fast are volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere?

This book addresses these and other questions by reviewing the latest advances in a wide range of Earth Science disciplines: from the measurement of short-lived radionuclides to the study of element diffusion in crystals and numerical modelling of magma behaviour. It will be invaluable reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students,  as well as igneous petrologists, mineralogists and geochemists involved in the study of igneous rocks and processes.

Anthony Dosseto did his PhD at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France before taking up a postdoctoral position at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia in 2004. In 2009, he moved to the University of Wollongong, Australia and in 2010 was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.

Simon P. Turner obtained his PhD at the University of Adelaide in 1991. Currently he holds an ARC Professorial Fellowship in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia where he specializes in the application of U-series isotopes to constraining the time scales of Earth processes with particular emphasis on subduction zone magmatism.

James A.Van Orman is an Associate Professor in Geological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. He was awarded a PhD in geochemistry at MIT and undertook postdoctoral research in mineral physics and geochemistry at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. His research is centered on diffusion in minerals and melts, with current interests in deep planetary rheology, chemical exchange processes, and geochronology.