1997 Volume 106 Issue 5 Pages 666-669
Science does not advance at the same speed on its all facets, and is so in metamorphic petrology of Japan. Rock-forming mineralogy and phase petrology became Japanese tradition. Recognition of widespread partial melting in low-pressure metamorphic complex is helping to understand the evolution of crust. The analysis of chemical texture of rock-forming minerals helped to obtain reasonable estimation of P-T path of metamorphic complexes. Dating by K-Ar and Ar-Ar methods performed on as many samples as done for microprobe, greatly modified Japanese metamorphic geology. However experimental petrology, geochemistry of fluid, stable isotope studies and dating by ion-probe mass-spectroscopy are the fields where far more attention should be focussed.