Environmental and Low-Temperature Geochemistry

Environmental and Low-Temperature Geochemistry presents conceptual and quantitative principles of geochemistry to foster understanding of natural processes at and near the Earth’s surface, as well as anthropogenic impacts and remediation strategies. It provides the reader with principles that allow prediction of concentration, speciation, mobility, and reactivity of elements and compounds in soils, waters, sediments, and air, drawing attention to both thermodynamic and kinetic controls.

The scope includes atmosphere, terrestrial waters, marine waters, soils, sediments, and rocks in the shallow crust. The temporal scale ranges from the present to the Precambrian, and the spatial scale covers nanometres to local, regional, and global levels.

This second edition of Environmental and Low-Temperature Geochemistry offers the most up-to-date status of the carbon cycle and global warming, including carbon sources, sinks, fluxes, and consequences, as well as emerging evidence for and effects of ocean acidification. Understanding these environmental challenges requires knowledge grounded in fundamental principles of equilibrium, kinetics, basic laws of chemistry and physics, empirical evidence, examples from the geological record, and identification of system fluxes and reservoirs. This edition aims to provide clear explanations of these fundamental principles of geochemistry and furnish students and researchers with the knowledge to address pressing questions in environmental and geological sciences.

New content in this edition includes:

• Focus Boxes – one every two or three pages – providing case study examples (e.g., methyl isocyanate in Bhopal, origins and health effects of asbestiform minerals), concise explanations of fundamental concepts (e.g., balancing chemical equations, isotopic fractionation, using the K_eq to predict reactivity), and useful information (e.g., units of concentration, titrating to determine alkalinity, measuring redox potential of natural waters).
• Sections on emerging contaminants for which knowledge is rapidly increasing (e.g., perfluorinated compounds, pharmaceuticals, and other domestic and industrial chemicals).
• Greater attention to the interrelationships of inorganic, organic, and biotic phases and processes.
• Descriptions, theoretical frameworks, and examples of emerging methodologies in geochemistry research, e.g., clumped C-O isotopes to assess seawater temperature over geological time, metal stable isotopes to assess source and transport processes, X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study oxidation state and valence configuration of atoms and molecules.
• Additional end-of-chapter problems, including more quantitatively based questions.
• Two detailed case studies that examine the fate and transport of organic contaminants (VOCs, PFCs), with data and interpretations presented separately. These examples consider the chemical and mineralogical composition of rocks, soils, and waters in the affected system; microbial influence on the decomposition of organic compounds; the effect of reduction-oxidation on the transport of Fe, As, and Mn; stable isotopes and synthetic compounds as tracers of flow; geological factors that influence flow; and implications for remediation.

The interdisciplinary approach and range of topics – including environmental contamination of air, water, and soil, as well as the processes that affect both natural and anthropogenic systems – make it well-suited for environmental geochemistry courses at universities and liberal arts colleges.