Geochemistry GG325

Instructor: Prof. Ken Rubin

Email: krubin@hawaii.edu
Office: POST 606E; Office hrs: tba.
Phone: x68973

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/krubin/gg325.html

GG325 L1, F2013

Text:
Reading assignments from various books
are provided to you FOR FREE
(these will be in a folder outside of my office).
grading policy…..
Grading: on a curve.
Midterm exam (25%)
problem sets (30%)
class journal (20%)
final exam (25%)

Class participation/attendance is not mandatory, but is taken into

consideration in borderline grading situations.

Please turn homework assignments in on time. Grading penalties of

10% per day will apply unless a valid reason for a late assignment is
discussed with me ahead of time.

GG325 L1, F2013

1
Introductory Remarks
This semester we will use Chemistry to understand:

1. the natural workings of the Earth:

natural distributions of chemicals in global and local
environments.

2. the formation and history of the Earth:

The birth of matter in our solar nebula, formation of
the solar system and early Earth history.

3. perturbations caused by humans:

chemical distributions in anthropogenically "perturbed"
systems (using chemical fundamentals to explain the
condition of the environment there).

GG325 L1, F2013

Chemistry in a beaker is different

than chemistry in the environment.

The latter is more

complex, so we make
approximations and adaptations to
the "standard rules".

GG325 L1, F2013

2
What is Geochemistry?
Geochemistry is the study of the sources and fates of
chemical species in natural environments.

Geochemistry is a set of tools for helping to understand

the Earth

these tools are based upon chemical, instead of the

physical observations of the geologist.

Understanding something about the chemistry of matter and

the parameters that affect it help us to explain how a natural
environment functions.

GG325 L1, F2013

What is Environmental Geochemistry?

It is the study of the chemical species in natural
environments and the effects of technology upon them.
Environmental Geochemistry involves the comparison of
natural systems with those affected by human activities.
Humans can alter the environment physically:
 i.e., they can cause excess erosion that in turn silts a river, which in turn
causes water clarity and light transmission to go down, which can affect the
temperature and chemistry of the riverine system (and therefore its biology as
well).

Humans can also alter the environment chemically:

 i.e., they can add materials to an environment which changes the way it
functions by affecting either its biota or its natural chemical condition (e.g., pH).

GG325 L1, F2013

3
 This class will be focus on how natural
environments work,

but it will also consider if and how aspect(s)

have somehow been altered by human
activity.

GG325 L1, F2013

Some Definitions
When humans add something to an environment, the added entity is
known as a Contaminant.
a contaminant is a substance present in greater than natural
concentration as a result of human activity that causes deviations from
the normal composition of the Environment.
A contaminant is a Pollutant when it harms the environment
a Pollutant is a substance present in greater than natural concentration
as a result of human activity that has a net detrimental effect upon the
Environment or one of its components.
A Pollutant becomes Toxic (a "toxicant") when it harms one or more
biota within the environment.
a Toxic Pollutant is a substance present in greater than natural

concentration as a result of human activity that has a net detrimental

effect upon the life functions of one or more biota of a given
Environment.

GG325 L1, F2013

4
 Natural Vs. Anthropogenic Compounds

• Human activities have introduced significant quantities of

some completely new compounds into the environment -
substances that simply did not exist on Earth prior to the
Industrial Age [(CFCs, probably PCBs], making the very
presence of these compounds “anthropogenic”.

• Naturally occurring compounds (and elements) can also

be classified as contaminants and pollutants.
Here we talk about “anthropogenic” enrichment above
“normal” levels.

GG325 L1, F2013

This brings up a related point:

human technology has irreversibly changed the way the
Earth and it’s surfice sub-systems function.
Technology has changed the way in which energy
and material is utilized and transferred between the
various reservoirs on Earth’s surface.

Technology has provided us with a means to

improve the conditions of our lives.

Technology has also provided us with a means for

dramatically altering our environment, sometimes
very detrimentally.

In some cases the actions of many people put an

environment “on edge”, so that the subsequent actions of
an individual might cause greater harm than if the
environment had not previously been compromised.
GG325 L1, F2013

5
Cycles of Matter
The combined forces of nature and humans cause materials to move
about Earth from place to place. This movement of matter often includes
chemical transformations conducted by geologic, hydrologic, atmospheric
or biologic agents.

In this course we will study Earth as a

system of inter-related parts

We will apply chemistry to geologic,

hydrologic, biologic and atmospheric
phenomena

AND ALSO to the relationships

between them.

We will explore most of the architecture of Earth's natural cycles

(interactions between hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and
atmosphere).
GG325 L1, F2013

Cycles of Matter

The more we understand of natural cycles, the better equipped

we are to avert future problems caused by our continuing
industrialization, which usually involves altering the natural
order of things.

Earth Scientists often find it convenient to think of various parts

of our planet as containers between which matter moves.
• These containers are referred to as Reservoirs.

• Movement of material between them is known as a flux.

• Concentration changes in space and time are determined by
Transport equations
GG325 L1, F2013

6
Definition of Reservoirs

any physical subdivision of the natural world that

acts semi-independently and in which one or
more classes of processes occur.

We can define reservoirs differently depending

upon the problem we are studying.
i.e., the hydrosphere might be defined as the location
of all water on Earth
the exogenic hydrosphere would be only the
"surface" water;
sub-reservoirs can also be defined, such the oceans,
rivers, glaciers, lakes, etc...)

GG325 L1, F2013

Interaction between the major reservoirs on Earth

follow predictable Cycles.

Definition of Cycles
The pathways and rates of material or energy
transfer between reservoirs are cycles. Ideally,
a cycle is "closed" so that all material is
accounted for in the mass balance.
Definition of Biogeochemical Cycles 
the chemical interactions between various abiotic
reservoirs and biological life.

Definition of Geobiology
the study of the modern and past geological record from
the perspective of interactions with, and effects of,
biological life.
GG325 L1, F2013

7
Cycles can apply to parts of the earth that we conveniently define to suit
our purposes. A lake is a very clear example of a “reservoir”. Many
physical and chemical processes take place in the lake waters. The
waters of the lake exchange matter with the surrounding environment (the
atmosphere, the underlying sediments and via rivers, streams and
groundwater that flow in and out).

GG325 L1, F2013

In geology 101 you likely saw cartoons of the hydrologic cycle like this one

GG325 L1, F2013

8
With the concepts of reservoirs, fluxes and cycles we can
treat the global hydrologic cycle in a more quantitative way.

Evap = 0.073

Lakes/Rivers: 0.13
Grndwtr.: 9.5
Atm.
ICE: 29 0.013 Units: Reservoirs (106 km3)
Precip = 0.110 and fluxes (106 km3 per year)

River and GW
discharge = Precip = 0.386
0.037
Evap = 0.423

Ocean: 1370

GG325 L1, F2013

In a generic "cycle"
diagram reservoirs are
boxes and fluxes are
arrows. We quantify
reservoirs with units of
mass or concentration
and fluxes with units of
mass or concentration
per time.

GG325 L1, F2013

9
Soil is often included in the
exogenic cycle but this
figure from your text places
it entirely within the
endogenic cycle.

Also, an important
hydrosphere-biosphere flux
is not shown in this figure.

Notice that "Technology",

aka the "anthrosphere", is
also not included in this
subcycle map.

Yet the anthrosphere feeds

into and draws from both.

Can you think of ways

how?

GG325 L1, F2013

This is a general
cycle diagram.

It illustrates four
major Earth
reservoirs and
identifies some of
the fluxes to and
from these various
reservoirs.

It also illustrates
human impacts on
them (the so called
“technology”
reservoir).

GG325 L1, F2013

10
We will talk about the hydrosphere a lot. What is it?.

Is water vapor in the atmosphere part of the hydrosphere or part of the

atmosphere?

Is the water in your body part of the hydrosphere?

The answers to these depend on how we define the reservoir to study

specific aspects of material flow.

GG325 L1, F2013

The thin layer of gases that blanket

the Earth’s surface.
A very “intuitive” example of a reservoir:
Obvious compositional contrast, and
physical location clearly differentiates the
atmosphere from the rest of the Earth
Or does it? How about pore spaces in
soils? Are they part of the atmosphere?
This is up to the person defining the cycle
to some extent but it is unlikely that one
would choose to include the gases in soil
pore spaces as part of the atmosphere.
Why do you think this is the case?

GG325 L1, F2013

11
 In the text it is stated that the geosphere
is the realm of the solid Earth, including
soils. This is a big hunk of material to
lump into one reservoir.

In this course there will be little or no

discussion of the deep earth.

Our emphasis will be on surface

processes - that part of the geosphere
which is connected to the exogenic
cycle.

But we will consider rocks, soils and

sediments separately.

GG325 L1, F2013

The sum total of all living entities on the

Earth.

Life resides in the hydrosphere,

geosphere and atmosphere.

Frequently the biosphere (living biomass) is considered as a

separate reservoir from those:
e.g., the living part of a forest, living plankton in the ocean.

A key aspect of the biosphere is its ability to create “stored

chemical” energy through processes such as photosynthesis.

GG325 L1, F2013

12
 The effects of human activity are greatly
amplified by technology.

The chemical signatures of human activity

touch nearly every part of globe.

GG325 L1, F2013

This table is a flux matrix (i.e., it gives some examples of

the types of materials that are transferred between the
major reservoirs).
It only scratches the surface of the very complex multi-
component fluxes between them.

GG325 L1, F2013

13
 Intro to Global Element cycles

• Ideally these must be “closed” (all material is

accounted for).
• Examples of a few particularly important element
cycles follow.
• Diagrams need not include all “spheres”, and
often contain subdivided “spheres” (oceans from
fresh water, etc.)

GG325 L1, F2013

In this rendition of the

carbon cycle, one
must infer missing
reservoir "names".
For instance boxes for
"fixed organic fossil
carbon" and for
"insoluble inorganic
carbon" represent the
GEOSPHERE.

Can you identify the

hydrosphere and
biosphere boxes?

GG325 L1, F2013

14
This rendition of the nitrogen cycle contains hybrid reservoirs

GG325 L1, F2013

15