Volume 87 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry covers fundamental aspects of the nature of silicate melts and the implications for the systems in which they participate, both technological and natural. The contents of this volume may perhaps best be summarized as structure - properties - dynamics. The volume contains syntheses of short and medium range order, structure-property relationships, and computation-based simulations of melt structure.

It continues with analyses of the properties (mechanical, diffusive, thermochemical, redox, nucleation, rheological) of melts. The dynamic behavior of melts in magmatic and volcanic systems, is then treated in the context of their behavior in magma mixing, strain localization, frictional melting, magmatic fragmentation, and hot sintering. Finally, the non-magmatic, extraterrestrial and prehistoric roles of melt and glass are presented in their respective contexts.

Autorentext

_Professor Dr. Daniel R. Neuville, Géomatériaux, CNRS-Institut de physique du globe de Paris, Université de Paris, 1 rue Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France. neuville@ipgp.fr

_Professor Dr. Grant S. Henderson, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, 22 Russell St, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B1, Canada. henders@es.utoronto.ca

_Professor Dr. Donald B. Dingwell, Department. Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilian-University (LMU), Theresienstrasse 41/III, D-80333 Munich, Germany. dingwell@lmu.de