The 'detective' power of stable isotopes for processes that occurred in the past, and for elucidating mechanisms at the molecular level, has impressed researchers over the past 100 years, since the time when isotopes of elements were first discovered. While most are interested in the normalized abundance ratios of two isotopes of an element, further power was unleashed when researchers investigated the relationship of three or more isotopes of the same element, e.g. 16O, 17O, and 18O for oxygen. This Element focuses on the history of discovery of triple isotope effects, the conceptual framework behind these effects, and major lines of development in the past few years of triple oxygen isotope research.

Uranium isotopes (238U/235U) have emerged as a proxy to reconstruct the redox conditions of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere based upon the large isotopic fractionation between reduced U(IV) and oxidized U(VI). Variations in 238U/235U, particularly when recorded in carbonate sediments, can track global trends in marine oxygenation and de-oxygenation. It is unique from other proxies because reduction primarily occurs at the sediment-water interface, and this sensitivity makes U isotopes especially relevant for the habitability of benthic animals. This Element covers the background, methods, and case studies of this promising tool for understanding Earth's environmental transitions, as rapid development continues to refine the accuracy of interpretations of 238U/235U records.

Geochemistry at the surface of the earth is dominated by two somewhat antagonistic forces: chemical reactions which attempt to attain a steady state (equilibrium) and geological movement of materials in time and space which changes the parameters that control chemical equilibrium. Another aspect that is extremely important to earth surface geochemistry is the effect of plants on the chemical and physical stability of materials (soils). Plant systems in fact work against the normal chemical changes (loss of silica, potassium, etc.) and the normal physical changes (stabilizing fine grained materials (clays) in the surface zones to avoid erosion). Biological effects are clearly seen in redox effects in the various parts of the earth surface movement cycle; soil formation, stream transport, sedimentation. This book attempts to outline these different parameters and their interactions as they affect earth surface geochemsitry in order to give a better understanding of movement and accumulation of elements at the surface of the earth.

Extreme weather and climate change aggravate the frequency and magnitude of disasters. Facing atypical and more severe events, existing early warning and response systems become inadequate both in scale and scope. Earth Observation (EO) provides today information at global, regional and even basin scales related to agrometeorological hazards. This book focuses on drought, flood, frost, landslides, and storms/cyclones and covers different applications of EO data used from prediction to mapping damages as well as recovery for each category. It explains the added value of EO technology in comparison with conventional techniques applied today through many case studies.

Chondrules are spherical silicate grains which formed from protoplanetary disk material, and as such provide an important record of the conditions of the Solar System in pre-planetary times. Chondrules are a major constituent in chondritic meteorites, however despite being recognised for over 200 years, their origins remain enigmatic. This comprehensive review describes state-of-the-art research into chondrules, bringing together leading cosmochemists and astrophysicists to review the properties of chondrules and their possible formation mechanisms based on careful observations of their chemistry, mineralogy, petrology and isotopic composition. Current and upcoming space missions returning material from chondritic asteroids and cometary bodies has invigorated research in this field, leading to new models and observations, and providing new insight into the conditions and timescales of the solar protoplanetary disk. Presenting the most recent advances, this book is an invaluable reference for researchers and graduate students interested in meteorites, asteroids, planetary accretion and solar system dynamics.

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive and state-of-the-art introduction to the novel and fast-evolving topic of in-situ produced cosmogenic nuclides. It presents an accessible introduction to the theoretical foundations, with explanations of relevant concepts starting at a basic level and building in sophistication. It incorporates, and draws on, methodological discussions and advances achieved within the international CRONUS (Cosmic-Ray Produced Nuclide Systematics) networks. Practical aspects such as sampling, analytical methods and data-interpretation are discussed in detail and an essential sampling checklist is provided. The full range of cosmogenic isotopes is covered and a wide spectrum of in-situ applications are described and illustrated with specific and generic examples of exposure dating, burial dating, erosion and uplift rates, and process model verification. Graduate students and experienced practitioners will find this book a vital source of information on the background concepts and practical applications in geomorphology, geography, soil-science, and geology.

Large igneous provinces (LIPs) are intraplate magmatic events, involving volumes of mainly mafic magma upwards of 100,000 km3, and often above 1 million km3. They are linked to continental break-up, global environmental catastrophes, regional uplift and a variety of ore deposit types. In this up-to-date, fascinating book, leading expert Richard E. Ernst explores all aspects of LIPs, beginning by introducing their definition and essential characteristics. Topics covered include continental and oceanic LIPs; their origins, structures, and geochemistry; geological and environmental effects; association with silicic, carbonatite and kimberlite magmatism; and analogues of LIPs in the Archean, and on other planets. The book concludes with an assessment of LIPs' influence on natural resources such as mineral deposits, petroleum and aquifers. This is a one-stop resource for researchers and graduate students in a wide range of disciplines, including tectonics, igneous petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, Earth history, and planetary geology, and for mining industry professionals.

The third edition of Radiogenic Isotope Geology examines revolutionary changes in geochemical thinking that have occurred over the past fifteen years. Extinct-nuclide studies on meteorites have called into question fundamental geochemical models of the Earth, while new dating methods have challenged conventional views of Earth history. At the same time, the problem of global warming has raised new questions about the causes of past and present climate change. In the new edition, these and other recent issues are evaluated in their scholarly and historical context, so readers can understand the development of current ideas. Controversial theories, new analytical techniques, classic papers, and illustrative case studies all come under scrutiny in this book, providing an accessible introduction for students and critical commentary for researchers.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This volume focuses on microscopic plastic debris, also referred to as microplastics, which have been detected in aquatic environments around the globe and have accordingly raised serious concerns. The book explores whether microplastics represent emerging contaminants in freshwater systems, an area that remains underrepresented to date. Given the complexity of the issue, the book covers the current state-of-research on microplastics in rivers and lakes, including analytical aspects, environmental concentrations and sources, modelling approaches, interactions with biota, and ecological implications. To provide a broader perspective, the book also discusses lessons learned from nanomaterials and the implications of plastic debris for regulation, politics, economy, and society. In a research field that is rapidly evolving, it offers a solid overview for environmental chemists, engineers, and toxicologists, as well as water managers and policy-makers.

Subject of the book is Uranium and its migration in aquatic environments. The following subjects are emphasised: Uranium mining, Phosphate mining, mine closure and remediation, Uranium in groundwater and in bedrock, biogeochemistry of Uranium, environmental behavior, and modeling. Particular results from the leading edge of international research are presented.

Teide Volcano has many different meanings: For the Guanche aborigines, who endured several of its eruptions, it was Echeide (Hell). Early navigators had in Teide, a lifesaving widely visible landmark that was towering over the clouds. For the first explorers, Teide was a challenging and dangerous climb, since it was thought that Teide's peak was so high that from its summit the sun was too close and far too hot to survive. Teide was considered the highest mountain in the world at that time and measuring its height precisely was a great undertaking and at the time of global scientific significance. For von Buch, von Humboldt, Lyell and other great 18th and19th century naturalists, Teide helped to shape a new and now increasingly 'volcanic' picture, where the origin of volcanic rocks (from solidified magma) slowly casted aside Neptunism and removed some of the last barriers for the development of modern Geology and Volcanology as the sciences we know today. For the present day population of Tenerife, living on top of the world's third tallest volcanic structure on the planet, Teide has actually become "Padre Teide", a fatherly protector and an emblematic icon of Tenerife, not to say of the Canaries as a whole. The UNESCO acknowledged this iconic and complex volcano, as "of global importance in providing evidence of the geological processes that underpin the evolution of oceanic islands". Today, 'Teide National Park' boasts 4 Million annual visitors including many 'volcano spotters' and is a spectacular natural environment which most keep as an impression to treasure and to never forget. For us, the editors of this book, Teide is all of the above; a 'hell of a job', a navigation point on cloudy days, a challenge beyond imagination, a breakthrough in our understanding of oceanic volcanism that has shaped our way of thinking about volcanoes, and lastly, Teide provides us with a reference point from where to start exploring other oceanic volcanoes in the Canaries and beyond. Here we have compiled the different aspects and the current understanding of this natural wonder.

The aim of this book is to unlock the power of the freeware R language to advanced university students and researchers dealing with whole-rock geochemistry of (meta-) igneous rocks. The first part covers data input/output, calculation of commonly used indexes and plotting in R. The core of the book then focusses on the presentation and practical implementations of modelling techniques used for fingerprinting processes such as partial melting, fractional crystallization, binary mixing or AFC using major-, trace-element and radiogenic isotope data. The reader will be given a firm theoretical basis for forward/reverse modelling, followed by exercises dealing with typical problems likely to be encountered in real life, and their solutions using R. The concluding sections demonstrate, using practical examples, how a researcher can proceed in developing a realistic model simulating natural systems. The appendices outline the fundamentals of the R language and provide a quick introduction to the open-source R-package GCDkit for interpretation of whole-rock geochemical data from igneous and metamorphic rocks.

In 1936 a German chemist identified certain organic molecules that he had extracted from ancient rocks and oils as the fossil remains of chlorophyll--presumably from plants that had lived and died millions of years in the past. It was another twenty-five years before this insight was developed and the term "biomarker" coined to describe fossil molecules whose molecular structures could reveal the presence of otherwise elusive organisms and processes.
Echoes of Life is the story of these molecules and how they are illuminating the history of the earth and its life. It is also the story of how a few maverick organic chemists and geologists defied the dictates of their disciplines and--at a time when the natural sciences were fragmenting into ever-more-specialized sub-disciplines--reunited chemistry, biology and geology in a common endeavor. The rare combination of rigorous science and literary style--woven into a historic narrative that moves naturally from the simple to the complex--make Echoes of Life a book to be read for pleasure and contemplation, as well as education.

The first volume in this new text book series covers comprehensively relevant aspects related to the appearance and characterisation of fossil matter in the geosphere such as kerogen, oil, shales and coals. As organic geochemistry is a modern scientific subject characterized by a high transdisciplinarity and located at the edge of chemistry, environmental sciences, geology and biology, there clearly is a need for a flexible offer of appropriate academic teaching material on an undergraduat level addressed to the variety of students coming originally from different study disciplines. For such a flexible usage this textbook series' consists of different volumes with clear defined aspects and with manageable length.

International Kimberlite Conferences (IKCs) are special events that are held across the world once in four to five years. IKC is the confluence platform for academicians, scientists and industrial personnel concerned with diamond exploration and exploitation, petrology, geochemistry, geochronology, geophysics and origin of the primary diamond host rocks and their entrained xenoliths and xenocrysts (including diamond) to get together and deliberate on new advances in research made in the intervening years. Ever since the organization of first IKC in 1973 and its tremendous success, the entire geological world eagerly look forward to subsequent such conferences with great enthusiasm and excitement. The scientific emanations from IKCs continue to make significant impact on our understanding of the composition, nature and evolution of the planet we live on. The previous conferences were held at Cape Town (1973), Santa Fe, New Mexico (1977), Clermont-Ferrand, France, (1982). Perth, Western Australia (1987), Araxa, Brazil (1991), Novosibirsk, Russia (1995), Cape Town (1998), Victoria, Canada (2003) and Frankfurt, Germany (2008). The tenth IKC was held at Bangalore, India between 5th and 11th February 2012. The conference was organized by the Geological Society of India in association with the government organizations, academic institutions and Indian diamond mining companies. About 300 delegates from 36 countries attended the conference and 224 papers were presented. The papers include 78 oral presentations and 146 poster presentations on following topics: Kimberlite geology, origin, evolution and emplacement of kimberlites and related rocks, petrology and geochemistry of metasomatised lithospheric mantle magmas, diamond exploration, cratonic roots, diamonds, diamond mining and sustainable developments and policies and governance of diamond exploration. Pre- and post-conference field trips were organized to (i) the diamond bearing kimberlites of Dharwar Craton in South India, (ii) lamproites of Bundelkhand Craton in northern India and (iii) diamond cutting and polishing industry of Surat, Gujarat in western India. A series of social and cultural programmes depicting cultural diversity of India were organized during the conference. The Kimberlite fraternity enjoyed yet another socially and scientifically successful conference.

The various safety organizations working on drinking water all warn about unhealthy constituents, as well as elements that can cause corrosion or scaling on pipes and installations. However, drinking water may also provide a substantial portion of the daily mineral intake, especially for the elderly and children, or those at risk of deficiencies due to unhealthy eating habits or starvation. Thus, a holistic approach to drinking water is presented in this book and the scope is extended from standards for undesirable substances to the basic mineral composition of water, examining 22 nutrient elements and ions and 21 toxic substances. The function of the nutrients in the body, symptoms of deficiency and overload, and advantages of the minerals from drinking water are presented, as well as symptoms of toxic elements from drinking water. The authors also suggest healthy ranges of minerals and mineral ratios for drinking water. The book offers a valuable resource for the health evaluation of drinking waters, for private well owners, public water producers and safety organizations alike.

This book explains how it came to be that Venus and Earth, while very similar in chemical composition, zonation, size and heliocentric distance from the Sun, are very different in surface environmental conditions. It is argued here that these differences can be accounted for by planetoid capture processes and the subsequent evolution of the planet-satellite system. Venus captured a one-half moon-mass planetoid early in its history in the retrograde direction and underwent its "fatal attraction scenario" with its satellite (Adonis). Earth, on the other hand, captured a moon-mass planetoid (Luna) early in its history in prograde orbit and underwent a benign estrangement scenario with its captured satellite.

In this updated and expanded second edition, new literature has been added on contaminant fate in the soil-subsurface environment. In particular, more data on the behavior of inorganic contaminants and on engineered nanomaterials were included, the latter comprising a group of “emerging contaminants� that may reach the soil and subsurface zones. New chapters are devoted to a new perspective of contaminant geochemistry, namely irreversible changes in pristine land and subsurface systems following chemical contamination. Two chapters were added on this topic, focusing attention on the impact of chemical contaminants on the matrix and properties of both liquid and solid phases of soil and subsurface domains. Contaminant impacts on irreversible changes occurring in groundwater are discussed and their irreversible changes on the porous medium solid phase are surveyed. In contrast to the geological time scale controlling natural changes of porous media liquid and solid phases, the time scale associated with chemical pollutant induced changes is far shorter and extends over a “human lifetime scale�.

Sedimentary basins host, among others, most of our energy and fresh-water resources: they can be regarded as large geo-reactors in which many physical and chemical processes interact. Their complexity can only be well understood in well-organized interdisciplinary co-operations. This book documents how researchers from different geo-scientific disciplines have jointly analysed the structural, thermal, and sedimentary evolution as well as fluid dynamics of a complex sedimentary basin system which has experienced a variety of activation and reactivation impulses as well as intense salt tectonics. In this book we have summarized our geological, geophysical and geochemical understanding of some of the most important processes affecting sedimentary basins in general and our view on the evolution of one of the largest, best explored and most complex continental sedimentary basins on Earth: The Central European Basin System.

This book provides detailed information on the history, analysis and applications of chlorine and bromine isotope geochemistry. Chlorine and bromine are geochemically unique as they prefer to exist as single charged negative ions. For this reason isotope fractionation reflects mostly processes that are not related to changes in the redox state and this fractionation is generally modest. The book will describe the processes that are most easily detected using these isotopes. Also isotope variations, and processes that cause them, measured in oxidised species such as perchlorates and in organic molecules will be described in this book.