Growth, Dissolution and Pattern Formation in Geosystems - Tapa dura

This book is the proceedings of the 11th Kongsberg seminar, held at the Norwegian Mining Museum in the city of Kongsberg, about 70 km Southwest of Oslo. The Kongs­ berg district is known for numerous Permian vein deposits, rich in native silver. Mining activity in the area lasted for more than 300 years, finally ceasing in 1957. The first eight Kongsberg seminars, organized by professor Arne Bj0rlykke, now director of the Norwegian Geological Survey, were focused on ore-forming processes. These seminars have always been a meeting point for people with a variety of geological backgrounds. Since 1995, the Kongsberg seminars have focussed on geological processes, rather than on specific geological systems, and the selection of invited speakers has been strongly influenced by their interest in the dynamics of geological systems. In 1995 and 1996, various aspects of fluid flow and transport in rocks, were emphasized. The first "Kongsberg proceedings" (of the 1995 seminar) published by Chapman and Hall (Jamtveit and Yardley, 1997) contained 17 chapters dealing with a wide range of topics from field based studies of the effects of fluid flow in sedimentary and metamorphic rocks to computer simulations of flow in complex porous and fractured media. In 1997, the focus was changed to growth, and dissolution processes in geological systems.

This book is based on the 1997 Kongsberg seminar, organised by the Department of Geology at the University of Oslo. The seminar brought together scientists from various disciplines involved in the study of growth and dissolution of minerals and pattern formation in geosystems. The volume includes several chapters dealing with non-equilibrium growth processes and pattern formation, which have recently become recognised as much more common in geological systems than hitherto thought.
The multidisciplinary context of this book will promote cross-fertilisation of ideas in a rapidly developing area that has a wide range of important applications in mineralogy and petrology as well as in other areas of science and technology.
Audience: This volume will be of interest not only to a wide audience within the geoscience community, but also to scientists working in related disciplines interested in mineral growth and dissolution processes in general and the coupling of such processes with transport and deformation in sedimentary and metamorphic systems.