Kind 11 Earth science

This chapter first presents a review of the rapidly developing range of MC-ICP-MS instrumentation available, then briefly surveys the initial experiments and associated methodologies that have helped to characterize the current and predicted performance of this kind of mass spectrometer, and concludes with a description of the exciting research areas, previously considered to be intractable, that are now developing in the earth sciences, cosmochemistry, oceanography, and the life sciences as a direct consequence of this technique. 

Fig. 2.2 Periodic Table of the elements and their Z numbers. Note that the periodic pattern is complicated by the transition metals between columns II and III. La and the lanthanides are known as the rare earth elements (REE). The table has been constructed using conventional terminology and further details can be found in basic chemistry textbooks. Gill (1996) gives an accessible summary with a strong applied earth science stance. Elements in bold are those most abundant in environmental materials (see Fig. 2.3). After Gill (1996), with kind permission of Kluwer Academic Publishers.

The primary sources for acquiring the FIA references have been the CHEMABS base of the ESA-IRS (European Space Agency-Information Retrieval Service) Current Awareness Service, and the Physical Chemical, and Earth Sciences section of Current Contents published by the Institute for Scientific Information, Inc. These sources have been supplemented by our own scrutiny of available periodicals of the analytical chemical literature, by the FIA bibliography listed in the recently launched Japanese Journal of Flow Injection Analysis, and by reprints supplied kindly to us by authors themselves. 

In Chap. 3, Robert E. Vandenberghe describes the applications of Mossbauer spectroscopy in earth science. With iron as the fourth most abundant element in the earth crust, Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy has become a suitable additional technique for the characterization of all kind of soil materials and minerals. In this chapter a review of the most important soil materials and minerals is presented. It starts with a description of the Mossbauer spectroscopic features of the iron oxides and hydroxides, which are essentially present in soils and sediments. Further, the Mossbauer spectra from sulhdes and carbonates are briefly considered. Finally, the Mossbauer features of the typical and most common silicate minerals are represented. Because the spectral analysis is not always a straightforward procedure, some typical examples are given showing the power of Mossbauer spectroscopy in the characterization of minerals. 

Of course it is important to distinguish between the shape of the periodic table, which is admittedly a matter of choice or convention, from tables that actually place certain elements in different groups. The point is not whether one should favor a tabular form, in which periods end abruptly, over circular displays which emphasize the continuity of the sequence of the elements for example. The question is rather whether to favor a table that places the element helium among the noble gases, when compared with tables that place this element among the alkaline earths. The wider question is whether elemental classification is an objective matter of fact or whether it is a matter of convention. It is the question of whether helium, for example, has a natural kinship with the noble gases or with the alkaline earths. Or as philosophers of science are apt to say, it is the question of whether or not groups, or families of elements, represent natural kinds. 

Chemistry is the science that deals with matter. The Earth on which we live, as well as the rest of the physical world that surrounds us, is formed by quite different kinds of matter. The first task of the chemist is to identify and isolate all the component entities that, together, constitute the material world. It is interesting to remember here that the old Alchemy was considered as "the noble art of separation". 

Figure 8.3 Dielectric constant of water as a function of P and T conditions. Reprinted from T. M. Seward, Physics and Chemistry of Earth, 13, 113-132, copyright 1981, with kind permission from Elsevier Science Ltd., The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington 0X5 1GB, UK.

I am grateful for the kind assistance provided by Judy Kiusalaas, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, who provided some materials and information on Peter Given s early years at Penn State. 

Because of its relation to saltpeter, P.-J. Macquer regarded nitric acid as a kind of sulfuric acid modified by its passage through animal and vegetable substances. In 1750, said he, the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin proposed an account of the generation of Nitre as the subject for their prize, which was conferred on a Memoir wherein this last opinion was supported by some new and very judicious experiments (8). Macquer stated that the Nitrous [nitric] Acid is never found but in earths and stones which have been impregnated with matters subject to putrefaction. (8). 

The fourth and most powerful reason for science s reluctance to embrace a theory of intelligent design is also based on philosophical considerations. Many people, including many important and well-respected scientists, just don t want there to be anything beyond nature. They don t want a supernatural being to affect nature, no matter how brief or constructive the interaction may have been. In other words, like young-earth creationists, they bring an a priori philosophical commitment to their science that restricts what kinds of explanations they will accept about the physical world. Sometimes this leads to rather odd behavior. 

This work was supported by the Department of Energy, Grant //ET-78-G-01-3382. Preliminary studies were also supported with funds from the Purdue Coal Research Center. We wish to acknowledge very helpful discussions with T. Ruppel of the Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (PETC). The coal samples were kindly provided by the Pennsylvania State University, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. 

Figure 1.6 The energy level diagram for trivalent lanthanide ions [7]. (With kind permission from Springer Science+Business Media Lasers and Excited States of Rare Earths, 1977, p. 93, R. Reisfeld, and C.K. Jorgensen, figure 2, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.)...

The X-ray patterns for the various materials kindly were mn by Dr. Skip Stoddard of the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University. 

My own view is that many, but not all, of the laws of science may well have arisen from the kind of empirical roots that are suggested in the freshman texts. Boyle s Law and Charles s Law on the behavior of gases probably did, but Newton s Laws of Motion clearly did not, because the uniform motion posited in his First Law could not be demonstrated on Earth in the eighteenth-century. 

Fertilisers.—Mother Earth readily repays the kindly attentions of man and offers an illimitable field to science in the development of food supplies for man and beast. The chemist examines the soil, decides the means to be adopted for the restoration of its-... 

One of the most interesting applications of the HSAB concept consists in the prediction of the stability of the complexes formed owing to interaction of alkali metal halides with rare-earth metal halides. These systems are of great interest for the materials science of scintillation materials the said complex halides are now considered among the most promising scintillation detectors and sensors. Besides, the Li- and Gd-based materials are especially convenient as effective detectors of thermal neutrons. The compositions and stability of the formed compounds depend considerably on the kind of acids and bases from which the compound is formed. So, Li+ cation is one of the hardest cation acids, and, therefore, the formation of stable complex halides of Li and lanthanides according to reaction ... 

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