"There's no bismuth like show bismuth" *
Lecture notes, hand-outs and copies of overhead transparencies shown in class. Remember that these are not necessarily comprehensive. In most cases they are just the guidelines I've put together to get me through my lectures, and are not meant to be complete Powerpoint-style presentations of the material. Use these to supplement your own notes; don't rely on them as a substitute for attending class.
Week 1: Review of periodicity; basic chemical properties of the elements. Bonding, crystal chemistry, solid solutions and substitution in minerals by minor elements. Geochemical classification of the elements. Remarkable revelations about the Earth's origin and differentiation from Rare Earth Element patterns. Notes on Crystal Chemistry (week 1)
Download additional, more detailed notes from week 1 (4.5 MB download).
Weeks 2 and 3: Geochemical thermodynamics. Predicting the equilibrium state of geochemical systems, and calculating their conditions of formation (P, T, chemical potentials) from geologic and geochemical data. Notes on Thermodynamics (weeks 2 and 3)
Weeks 4-5: Trace element geochemistry - Week 4 labs covered trace element partitioning between melts and crystals during partial melting or fractional crystallization. Here are notes which expand some of the examples that appeared in the lab, showing all the information you can get about magma sources and differentiation from minor elements, with examples from Hawaii. These come from Bruce Nelson's work on hotspot volcanism and the geochemistry of Hawaiian lavas (4 MB pdf file). We will return to some of this in weeks 8-9 when we talk about trace-element and isotopic evolution of the crust and mantle.
For those who bought Faure's textbook (Principles and Applications of Geochemistry) here are brief notes on trace elements and their use in identifying magma sources and modeling the effects of fractional crystallization. This is not covered in detail in Faure's book.
Lecture notes on identifying magma sources and changing melt composition by crystal fractionation.
Further advanced reading from Bill White's excellent textbook on Goldschmidt's original classification of the elements, and a more modern revision now that we know much more about the composition of rocks and geochemical reservoirs, especially the mantle. (Section 7.2)
To supplement lecture and lab discussion on fractional crystallization and fractional melting, here's a derivation of the Rayleigh equation for fractional crystallization. Note that the underlying idea will come up again when we talk about stable isotopes and the origin of the "meteoric water line".
Weeks 5-6: Notes and calculations on aqueous geochemistry: (i) Notes on mineral solubility, (ii) ion activity products and saturation, (iii) complex formation and non-ideal solutions, and (iv) notes from Mark Ghiorso on the derivation of Debye-Huckel theory. Overview and notes on (v) feldspar weathering will save you writing a lot of complicated clay mineral formulae and may help as you work through the current lab.
Download a pdf copy of some of the aqueous geochemistry notes and diagrams used in class (2.2 MB pdf file).
Week 7: Stable isotope geochemistry: Brief overview of stable isotopes, explaining some of the notation, equilibrium and non-equilibrium fractionation, stable isotope thermometry, and how these processes produce distinctive isotopic "signatures" in water, rocks, plants, animals and people! In addition, here is a short explanation of stable isotope fractionation in terms of bond strengths and bond vibrational frequencies.
Here are some tutorial notes and practice problems on stable isotopes. These too are for practice only, not for credit, not to be handed in. See John if you get stuck on any of the problems, or check the answers here.
Week 8: Here are notes on radioactivity and the links between differentiation, trace element signatures and the isotopic evolution of the crust and mantle (5 MB pdf file).
Here is a small set of practice problems on radioactivity, geochronology and isochrons. These are practice only, not for credit, not to be handed in. See John if you get stuck on any of the problems. Otherwise, answers are here.
Just for fun: Notes and diagrams on nucleosynthesis, cosmic abundances and extinct nuclides in the early solar system (4 MB pdf file).
Week 10: Notes and diagrams from the lecture on simple "box-model" geochemical cycles.
