Geochemistry

Geochemistry opens by equipping readers with the core tools of the discipline, starting with thermodynamics and kinetics as they operate on the planet and its surroundings. Those ideas then guide the study of water-based systems and of how trace elements move through magma.

Later chapters turn to radiogenic and stable isotopes and show how they reveal the age of rocks, the climates of the past, and what prehistoric people ate. The narrative then moves outward to the origins of the solar system, the Earth, and the chemical elements, before examining the make-up of the core, mantle, and crust and how that layered structure came to be.

The final chapter addresses organic chemistry, including how fossil fuels formed and how the carbon cycle has regulated the climate across geologic time and in the current period of rapid change.

Written for earth science students, researchers, and applied scientists, the book offers both the underlying theory of geochemistry and an overview of its uses in earth and environmental science. Supplementary material is available online.