Gechemistry / Геохимия

The term “geochemistry” was first used by the German-Swiss chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein* in 1838. You might guess, merely from the etymology of the word, that the field of geochemistry is somehow a marriage of the fields of geology and chemistry. That would be a good guess. But just how are chemistry and geology combined within geochemistry; what is the relationship between them? Perhaps the best explanation would be to state that in geochemistry, we use the tools of chemistry to solve geological problems; that is, we use chemistry to understand the Earth and how it works. The Earth is part of a closely related family of heavenly bodies, our Solar System, that formed simultaneously. Hence, the realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth to encompass the entire Solar System. The goals of geochemistry are thus no different from those of other fields of earth science; just the approach differs. On the other hand, while geochemists have much in common with other chemists, their goals differ in fundamental ways. For example, our goals do not include elucidating the nature of chemical bonding or synthesizing new compounds, although these may often be of interest and use in geochemistry. Though geochemistry is a subdiscipline of earth science, it is a very broad topic – so broad that no one can really master it all; geochemists invariably specialize in one or a few aspects, such as geochemical thermodynamics, isotope geochemistry, marine chemistry, atmospheric chemistry, trace element geochemistry, soil chemistry, and so on. <...>