Volume 7 of Reviews in Mineralogy reviews the essential aspects of pyroxene research. Recently
Deer Howie and Zussman (DHZ) published a second edition of their volume in the Rock-Forming
Minerals series Single-Chain Silicates Vol. 2A (John Wiley New York 1978). The present
volume is intended to be complementary to DHZ and to provide material covered lightly or not at
all in DHZ such as electron microscopy spectroscopy and detailed thermodynamic treatments.
However because the range of pyroxene research has grown so much in recent years there still
are important areas not covered comprehensively in either of these volumes. Some of these areas
are kinetics diffusion crystal defects deformation and nonsilicate pyroxene crystal
chemistry. Because of these omissions and because this volume is intended for use with the MSA
Short Course on Pyroxenes to be held at Emory University in conjunction with the November 1980
meeting of the Society a Symposium on Pyroxenes was organized by J. Stephen Huebner for the
meeting that is designed to present the latest research results on several different topics
including those above. With DHZ this volume and publications from the Symposium the student
of pyroxenes should be well-equipped to advance our knowledge of pyroxenes in the decades
ahead.
