This text outlines the fundamentals required to understand the science of thermodynamics and provides a comprehensive and balanced coverage of the application of thermodynamics in geochemistry.

This book offers the guidelines on long-term confinement of fine particulate waste products in a safe and environmentally acceptable location. It seeks to present the state of the art, drawing on combined experience from within the European Union (EU), on good international practice where relevant and on lessons learnt from recent untoward incidents. These guidelines have been developed in parallel with the development of the European Standard on Earthworks (prEN 16907) and the contents have been influenced by the well-publicised need for guidance to all stakeholders on both technical and regulatory aspects of the permitting, design and construction of extractive waste facilities in Europe. The Extractive Waste Directive (EWD) imposes a duty on all operators and regulators to ensure the competent design, operation and closure of such facilities. However, though some guidance has been published on a limited number of related technical elements, the relevance of these contributions has been diminished by the lack of an integrated approach. It is now evident to both regulatory bodies and operators alike that a unified and comprehensive document providing guidance to all stakeholders is required if the future of mining within the EU is to be assured and further untoward incidents avoided. These guidelines seek to address all technical stages of the development of a hydraulic fill project in the context of the EWD, with an emphasis on waste and facility characterisation and on the risk-based assessments which underwrite them. They are intended for use by all stakeholders involved in those European industries which involve the generation, transport and storage of fine particulate waste products requiring long-term confinement in a safe, stable and environmentally acceptable location.

Chemical additives are used to enhance the properties of many industrial products. Since their release into the environment is a potential risk for man and nature, their fate and behavior have been investigated in the framework of the European Union-funded project RISKCYCLE. The results are presented in two volumes, Global Risk-Based Management of Chemical Additives I: Production, Usage and Environmental Occurrence and Global Risk-Based Management of Chemical Additives II: Risk-Based Assessment and Management Strategies. This book is the second of the two volumes and features two main parts. In the first part, experts in the field discuss different models related to the assessment of the potential risks posed by chemical additives and analyze their benefits and drawbacks. In the second part, specific case studies in which the models have been applied are presented and the reliability of the models is evaluated. This volume is an invaluable source of information for scientists and governmental agencies dealing with the risk assessment of chemicals on a global scale.

When did life first appear on Earth and what form did it take? The answer to this intriguing and fundamentally important question lies somewhere within the early Archean rock record. The young Earth was, however, a very different place to that we know today and numerous pitfalls await our interpretation of these most ancient rocks.

The first half of this practical guide equips the reader with the background knowledge to successfully evaluate new potentially biological finds from the Archean rock record. Successive steps are covered, from locating promising samples in the field, through standard petrography and evaluation of antiquity and biogenicity criteria, to the latest state of the art geochemical techniques. The second half of the guide uniquely brings together all the materials that have been claimed to comprise the earliest fossil record into an easily accessible, fully illustrated format.

This will be a handbook that every Archean geologist, palaeobiologist and astrobiologist will wish to have in their backpack or on their lab-bench.

This book includes a collection of chapters illustrating the application of geochemical methods to investigate the interactions between geological materials and fluids with humans. Examples include the incorporation and human health effects of inhaling lithogenic materials, the reactivity of biological fluids with geological materials, and the impact on nascent biomineral formation. Biomineralization is investigated in terms of mineralogy, morphology, bone chemistry, and pathological significance with a focus on the health impacts of "foreign" geological/environmental trace element incorporation. One of the contribution is devoted to particulate matter, the presence of metals and metalloids in the environment, and the possibility of using human hair as a biomarker between environmental/geological exposure and human bioincorporation. Other chapters focus on the last advances on the analytical methods and instrumentational approaches to investigating the chemistry of biological fluids and tissues.

This volume is for environmental researchers and government policy makers who are required to monitor environmental quality for their environmental investigators and remediation plans. It uses concepts and applications to aid in the exchange of scientific information across all the environmental science disciplines ranging from geochemistry to hydrogeology and ecology to biotechnology. Focusing on issues such as metals, organics and nutrient contamination of water and soils, and interactions between soil-water-plants-chemicals, the book synthesizes the latest findings in this rapidly-developing, multi-disciplinary field. Cutting-edge environmental analytical methods are also presented, making this a must-have for professionals tasked with monitoring environmental quality. These concepts and applications help in decision making and problem solving in a single resource.
*Integrative approach promotes the exchange of scientific information among difference disciplines
*New concepts and case studies make the text unique among existing resources
*Tremendous practical value in the fields of environmental quality and remediation with an emphasis on human health and ecological risk assessment

This book is written for researchers and students interested in the function and role of chemical elements in biological or environmental systems. Experts have long known that the Periodic System of Elements (PSE) provides only an inadequate chemical description of elements of biological, environmental or medicinal importance. This book explores the notion of a Biological System of the Elements (BSE) established on accurate and precise multi-element data, including evolutionary aspects, representative sampling procedures, inter-element relationships, the physiological function of elements and uptake mechanisms. The book further explores the concept Stoichiometric Network Analysis (SNA) to analyze the biological roles of chemical species. Also discussed is the idea of ecotoxicological identity cards which give a first-hand description of properties relevant for biological and toxicological features of a certain chemical element and its geo biochemically plausible speciation form. The focus of this book goes beyond both classical bioinorganic chemistry and toxicology.

This book presents an overview of recent advances in our understanding of the genesis of diamonds and the associated phases. It is divided into three main parts, starting with an introduction to the analysis of diamond inclusions to infer the formation processes. In turn, the second part of the book presents high-pressure experimental studies in mantle diamond-parental mineral systems with representative multicomponent boundary compositions. The experimental syngenesis phase diagrams provided reveal the physicochemical mechanisms of diamond nucleation and substantiate the mantle-carbonatite concept of the genesis of diamonds and associated phases. Lastly, the book describes the genetic classification of diamond-hosted mineral inclusions and experimentally determined RE "mineral-parental melt" partition coefficients. The physicochemical experimental evidence presented shows the driving forces behind the fractional evolution of the mantle magmas and diamond-parental melts. Given the depth and breadth of its coverage, the book offers researchers essential new insights into the ways diamonds and associated minerals and rocks are naturally created.

Most of the world s mountains are rich in water and, as such, play a pivotal role in the global water cycle. They provide water for diverse human uses and ecosystems. Growing water demands as well as climate change will lead to ever-increasing pressure on mountain waters. Overcoming water-use conflicts and maintaining the ecological functioning of mountain waters presents a highly challenging task and is indispensable for sustainable development.
This book extensively portrays the highly diverse attributes of mountain waters and demonstrates their paramount importance for ecological and societal development. The extensive summaries on the scientific basics of mountain waters are supplemented with considerations on the diverse water uses, needs for management actions, and challenges regarding sustainable water management. This overview concerns not only the mountain areas themselves but also downriver reaches and their surrounding lowlands, and, therefore, the relationship between mountain and lowland water issues."

The book starts with an introduction on silicon isotopes and related analytical methods, and explains the mechanisms of silicon isotope fractionation. Silicon isotope distributions in lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere are shown based on results from field studies, and silicon isotope relevance for applications are presented.

For the past 3.8 billion years, the geochemistry of the Earth's surface - its atmosphere, waters and exposed crust - has been determined by the presence of biota. Photosynthetic organisms exposed the Earth's surface to oxygen, denitrifying bacteria have maintained the nitrogen concentration in Earth's atmosphere, and land plants have determined the rate of chemical weathering. Life determines the global biogeochemical cycles of the elements of biochemistry, especially C, N, P and S. Volume 8 traces the origin and impact of life on the geochemistry of the Earth's surface, with special emphasis on the current human impact on global biogeochemical cycles.

Reprinted individual volume from the acclaimed Treatise on Geochemistry, (10 Volume Set, ISBN 0-08-043751-6, published in 2003)
* Comprehensive and authoritative scope and focus
* Reviews from renowned scientists across a range of subjects, providing both overviews and new data, supplemented by extensive bibliographies
* Extensive illustrations and examples from the field

Volume 9 focuses on natural and anthropogenic environmental contaminants and their implications for human health and the environment. Environmental impacts on soils, groundwater, freshwater, the oceans and atmosphere are examined in the context of both inorganic geochemistry (metals, metalloids, radioactive compounds, mineral dusts, dissolved salts, acidification) and organic geochemistry (halogenated and non-halogenated hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, fuel oxygenates, pesticides, nutrients). Issues of risk, toxicity and exposure assessment; contaminant fate and transport; remediation and disposal; and source identification are examined in this context.

Reprinted individual volume from the acclaimed Treatise on Geochemistry, (10 Volume Set, ISBN 0-08-043751-6, published in 2003)
* Comprehensive and authoritative scope and focus
* Reviews from renowned scientists across a range of subjects, providing both overviews and new data, supplemented by extensive bibliographies
* Extensive illustrations and examples from the field

Written by two of the best US researchers in the field, this text investigates issues of astrobiological relevance in the context of cold aqueous planetary geochemistry. At the core of the technical chapters is the FREZCHEM model, initially developed over many years by one of the authors to quantify aqueous electrolyte properties and chemical thermodynamics at subzero temperatures. FREZCHEM is of huge relevance to scientists in a number of fields, including biogeochemists.

The shock waves produced by meteorite impacts give rise not only to the obvious craters seen on planets and their satellites but also to subtle effects seen only with chemical and petrographic examination of the shocked material. Shock waves in the interplanetary and interstellar medium play an important role in the formation of stars and planets, including the solar system. They also produce important chemical effects in interstellar clouds of dust and gas, --- including the production of rather complex organic molecules. This volume is concerned primarily with the chemical and physical effects of shock waves on typical Earth and planetary solid materials. The emphasis is on comparing naturally occurring materials with similar materials produced by shock compression in the laboratory. Such comparisons can provide clues about the environment and events that produced the natural materials. The chapters in the book deal with three main topics: * methods used to investigate the effects of shock on recovered minerals and rocks * effects of shock on carbon and hydrocarbons * subtle effects of shocks on geochemistry, such as shock induced redistribution of lead isotopes, the effect of the great impact at the end of the Cretaceous on atmospheric SO2 and CO2, and effect of shocks on ices.

This is the first book which deals with the economics of diamonds, specifically with the determinants of diamond prices. The period of analysis, 1978-1983, was chosen in order to shed light on the dramatic drop in diamond prices. The dominant variables causing this drop were the varying price of gold and fluctuating interest rates. Khoury helps the investor in making long-range decisions about investing in diamonds and deciding on the form the investment should take. He warns of the importance to understand the sensitivities of the market and the factors which must be taken into consideration before commitments to an investment in diamonds are made.

The book includes: a quick review of the characteristics of diamonds, the financial performance of DeBeers in a declining market, the economic structure of the diamond industry, the method for exercising economic control over the diamond market, the economic variables influencing diamond prices, and the modeling of diamond prices and the testing of the model using advanced statistical methods.

South America is a unique place where a number of past climate archives are ava- able from tropical to high latitude regions. It thus offers a unique opportunity to explore past climate variability along a latitudinal transect from the Equator to Polar regions and to study climate teleconnections. Most climate records from tropical and subtropical South America for the past 20,000 years have been interpreted as local responses to shift in the mean position and intensity of the InterTropical Conv- gence Zone due to tropical and extratropical forcings or to changes in the South American Summer Monsoon. Further South, the role of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds on global climate has been highly investigated with both paleodata and coupled climate models. However the regional response over South America during the last 20,000 years is much more variable from place to place than pre- ously thought. The factors that govern the spatial patterns of variability on millennial scale resolution are still to be understood. The question of past natural rates and ranges of climate conditions over South America is therefore of special relevance in this context since today millions of people live under climates where any changes in monsoon rainfall can lead to catastrophic consequences.

These proceedings comprise the peer-reviewed contributions submitted to the 11th International Congress for Applied Mineralogy (ICAM) held July 5-10, 2013, at the Southwest University of Science and Technology (SWUST) in Mianyang, China. The biennial ICAM is the most important gathering of applied mineralogists, organized every other year by the ICAM-Council. The multidisciplinary research presented in this book will be of interest to scientists and professionals dealing with topics like environmental and medical mineralogy; industrial minerals; bio-minerals and biomaterials; advanced materials; process mineralogy; mining and metallurgy; cultural heritage; the interaction of minerals with microorganisms; and solid waste treatment and recycling, including genetic mineralogy. "The field of applied mineralogy has been able to match society's pace by continuously reinventing itself, quickly adopting new technologies and instrumentation as they became available and putting them to work for the service of mankind living in a world that heavily relies on minerals. Over the past few decades, applied mineralogy has evolved into a cutting- edge discipline that leads the way for science, engineering and research and development to benefit society. Contrary to popular belief, mineral resources are limited, and we have an obligation to our heirs to use them responsibly." Dr. Maarten A.T.M. Broekmans Post-President ICAM Council

The book will include contributions of the state of the art of quartz raw materials (deposits and properties) and their analytics. The chapters are presented by leading scientists in the quartz field. The presentations cover the main interrelations between genesis of quartz - formation of specific properties - analytics - industrial applications of SiO2 raw materials.

This book presents recent research into developing and applying computational tools to estimate the performance and safety of hydraulic structures from the planning and construction stage to the service period. Based on the results of a close collaboration between the author and his colleagues, friends, students and field engineers, it shows how to achieve a good correlation between numerical computation and the actual in situ behavior of hydraulic structures. The book's heuristic and visualized style disseminates the philosophy and road map as well as the findings of the research. The chapters reflect the various aspects of the three typical and practical methods (the finite element method, the block element method, the composite element method) that the author has been working on and made essential contributions to since the 1980s. This book is an advanced continuation of Hydraulic Structures by the same author, published by Springer in 2015.

Over the past decade the scientific activities of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), which focuses on the role of the oceans in controlling climate change via the transport and storage of greenhouse gases and organic matter, have led to an increased interest in the study of the biogeochemistry of organic matter. There is also a growing interest in global climate fluctuations. This, and the need for a precise assessment of the dynamics of carbon and other bio-elements, has led to a demand for an improved understanding of biogeochemical processes and the chemical characteristics of both particulate and dissolved organic matter in the ocean. A large amount of proxy data has been published describing the changes of the oceanic environment, but qualitative and quantitative estimates of the vertical flux of (proxy) organic compounds have not been well documented. There is thus an urgent need to pursue this line of study and, to this end, this book starts with several papers dealing with the primary production of organic matter in the upper ocean. Thereafter, the book goes on to follow the flux and characterization of particulate organic matter, discussed in relation to the primary production in the euphotic zone and resuspension in the deep waters, including the vertical flux of proxy organic compounds. It goes on to explain the decomposition and transformation of organic matter in the ocean environment due to photochemical and biological agents, and the reactivity of bulk and specific organic compounds, including the air-sea interaction of biogenic gases. The 22 papers in the book reflect the interests of JGOFS and will thus serve as a valuable reference source for future biogeochemical investigations of both bio-elements and organic matter in seawater, clarifying the role of the ocean in global climate change.

What happens when a chemical is released into the environment? It diffuses, disperses, adsorbs, reacts, and/or changes state. To predict and analyze this process, the mathematics of diffusion is applied to lakes, rivers, groundwater, the atmosphere, the oceans, and transport between these media. A sustainable world requires a deep understanding of the transport of chemicals through the environment and how to address and harness this process. This volume presents a succinct and in-depth introduction to this critical topic. Featuring authoritative, peer-reviewed articles from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, Transport and Fate of Chemicals in the Environment represents an essential one-stop reference for an audience of researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, and industry professionals.

As the title suggests, Isotope Effects in the Chemical, Geological and Bio Sciences deals with differences in the properties of isotopically substituted molecules, such as differences in the chemical and physical properties of water and the heavy waters. Since the various fields in which isotope effects are applied do not only share fundamental principles but also experimental techniques, this book includes a discussion of experimental apparatus and experimental techniques.

Isotope Effects in the Chemical, Geological and Bio Sciences is an educational monograph addressed to graduate students and others undertaking isotope effect research. The fundamental principles needed to understand isotope effects are presented in appropriate detail. While it is true that these principles are more familiar to students of physical chemistry and some background in physical chemistry is recommended, the text provides enough detail to make the book an asset to students in organic and biochemistry, and geochemistry.

Chlorinated paraffins are one of the last classes of chlorinated compounds that are still being produced worldwide and used in high quantities in many applications. They are particularly used in cutting oils in the metal industry, but also as lubricants, plasticizers, flame retardants and as additives in adhesives, rubber, paints and sealants. This volume covers the state-of-the-art of methods for the synthesis and analysis of chlorinated paraffins. Experts in the field provide an overview of their worldwide occurrence and utilization and describe their toxicological properties. International regulations and production volumes are presented as well as an example of a risk assessment study that was carried out in Japan. This book is a valuable and comprehensive source of information for environmental scientists interested in the occurrence and toxicology of chlorinated paraffins and for authorities and producers.

This volume synthesizes the relevant data that is fundamental to our understanding of trace metal biogeochemistry and the ecology of biological communities of deep-sea vent systems. It presents the combined results of biological and geochemical research and analyzes the microdistribution of animals and the spatial structure of vent communities. Careful consideration is given to the export of iron and other trace metals from hydrothermal vents. The environmental conditions to be found in deep-sea hydrothermal community habitats, along with the trace metal behavior in biotope water are characterized and the sources and forms of trace metals taken up by dominant hydrothermal vent animals are discussed. Special attention is paid to the poorly investigated deep biosphere of the sub-seafloor igneous crust. The book is illustrated with a wealth of exceptional deep-sea photos taken by the manned submersible "Mir", and a dedicated chapter focuses on the role of deep manned submersibles in ocean research. The book will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of oceanography, geochemistry, biology, the environmental sciences and marine ecology.

This book is a brief summary of the course of lectures in Geochemistry for undergraduate and graduate students from other than Geological Departments (chemists, biologists, ecologists and naturalists). It describes the Earth's structure and some geological processes. The modern geochemical concepts take proper account of global geological processes and the influence of Cosmos. They are based on the laws and approaches of equilibrium and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The cycles of energy and chemical elements within the Earth are interrelated with the global geochemical cycle. In addition to the traditional Geochemistry course, this book offers Geochemistry of microorganisms, Geochemistry of dispersed systems, Geochemistry of cryogenesis, and Geochemistry of cryptobiosphere. Features: Provides the reader with a general idea of the Earth's chemical life and its related global geological events Offers a concise and clear description of the modern concepts in Geochemistry, including new directions such as Geochemistry of Cryogenesis, Geochemistry of Disperse Systems, Geochemistry of Microorganisms, and Geochemistry of Cryptobiosphere Implies a wide application of the thermodynamic approach. Useful for students who, though lacking in geology basics, are experienced in chemistry and biology