1st Edition

Water-Rock Interaction, Two Volume Set Proceedings of the Eleventh International Symposium on Water-Rock Interaction, 27 June-2 July 2004, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA

    1736 Pages
    by CRC Press

    The interaction of the lithosphere and hydrosphere sets the boundary conditions for life, as water and the nutrients extracted from rocks are essential to all known life-forms. Water-rock interaction also affects the fate and transport of pollutants, mediates the long-term cycling of fluids and metals in the earth's crust, impacts the migration and storage of hydrocarbons in sedimentary basins, contributes to the carving and evolution of landscapes, and affects the evolution of geothermal and volcanic activity. At the longest timescales, water-rock interaction draws down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and impacts climatic evolution. Several tools have contributed over the last decades to our growing understanding of water-rock interaction. For example, new uses of isotopes have led to novel interpretations of the evolution of fluid and rock chemistry over time. New modelling techniques have allowed elucidation of multi-component reactive transport at all temperatures and depths in the crust, while new microscopic and spectroscopic techniques have been used to investigate mineral surfaces and nanophases in environmental systems. New tools from molecular biology are now probing micro-organisms living at depth and at the surface of the Earth. In addition, field investigations measure ongoing water-rock interaction in modern day systems, allowing comparison to such interactions documented in the geological record. The 334 papers published in Volumes 1 and 2 of these Proceedings summarize current research from around the world on the broad area of water-rock interactions. These research results are of broad interest to students and professionals in geochemistry, hydrology, geology, environmental microbiology, vulcanology, and water chemistry studying both the fundamental and applied aspects of energy and natural resources.

    Volume 1 Plenary presentations: The silicification of microorganisms: a comparison between in situ experiments in the field and laboratory; Control of dilation and collapse during weathering and soil formation on Hawaiian basalts; Chemical weathering in steady-state orogens - examples from the Himalaya and Southern Alps; Origin of the carbon dissolved in the groundwater and derivation of Earth diffuse emission of CO2 : the case of the Italian Peninsula; Chlorine stable isotopes in sedimentary systems: does size matter? Arsenic mobilization from contaminated sediments: a full-scale experiment in progress; Polymeric silicate complexing in aqueous fluids at high pressure and temperature, and its implications for water-rock interaction; Volcanic-geothermal water-rock interactions and degassing: a Symposium in memory of Donald White; Keynote addresses; Water-rock interactions in groundwater systems and sedimentary basins; Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide sequestration; Advances in spectroscopic and microscopic techniques for the study of water-rock interactions; Complexity of mineral surfaces: experimental and theoretical studies; Weathering studies at all space and time scales. Volume 2: Volume 2 Geochemical modeling from molecular to global scales; Geomicrobiology: a symposium in honor of Henry Ehrlich; Iron biogeochemistry; Aqueous geochemistry and biogeochemistry; Environmental geochemistry.

    Biography

    Wanty, Richard B.; Seal II, Robert R.