Introduction to Geochemistry

E-PSCI 51 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

A commonality across the universe are the elements and isotopes of the periodic table, and understanding their behavior is applicable not only to the Earth today, but across space and time. All planetary objects and processes involve chemical exchange, and in this course we will learn how chemical behavior is central to planetary systems, and how we can use geochemistry to understand Earth’s structure and function and how it has changed with time. This course emphasizes the physical aspects of geochemistry—with very little emphasis on organic chemistry that controls the biological world. The emphasis will be first on a geochemical toolkit to approach Earth problems, and then applications of the toolkit to show how geochemistry is used to understand the Earth. These applications range from discovering the building blocks of the Earth to reconstructing climate patterns through recent glaciations.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course students will understand:

• Where the elements and isotopes come from, and what controls their abundance in the universe

• Fundamentals of chemical equilibrium (and disequilibrium) and how the applications vary for major elements, trace elements and isotopes

• How mineral/melt equilibria controls planetary structure using major elements

• How trace elements can be used to decipher both high (e.g., igneous) and low (e.g., aqueous) temperature geological problems

• How radiogenic isotopes are used to study the timing and differentiation of solar systems and planetary bodies

• How stable isotope variations can be applied to both high and low temperature problems

These tools will be used so that by the end of the course, students will be able to see how geochemistry leads to an understanding of major aspects of planetary systems, including:

• The formation and chemical distribution of planets in our solar system

• The reasoning behind formation of the Earth/Moon system

• Earth’s physical/chemical structure and why it is likely common in the universe

• Controls on the formation of Earth’s atmosphere

• The processes of planetary evolution as they happened on Earth

• How did Earth progress from an oxygen-free to an oxygen-rich world?

• How geochemistry and plate tectonics are closely related

• How geochemistry was central to the delineation of glacial cycles

Course Notes

This course fulfills the EPS sub-discipline requirement of either Climate, Atmosphere, and Oceans, or Geobiology, Geochemistry, and Earth History.

Recommended Prep

An introductory earth science course and basic chemistry are expected.