This book is the first to detail the chemical changes that occur in deforming materials subjected to unequal compressions. While thermodynamics provides, at the macroscopic level, an excellent means of understanding and predicting the behavior of materials in equilibrium and non-equilibrium states, much less is understood about nonhydrostatic stress and interdiffusion at the chemical level. Little is known, for example, about the chemistry of a state resulting from a cylinder of deforming material being more strongly compressed along its length than radially, a state of non-equilibrium that...

From the reviews: ..".one of the charms of this book is that it is different from both structural geology text books and mechanics texts. Bayly has brought these two fields together admirably, with great intelligence, imagination and originality. For this reason alone, I think all active structural geologists, whether in research or teaching, and particularly those concerned with theory, should read this book."
(Journal of Structural Geology)