One of the main outcomes of the eleven meetings of the Working Party was the recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary studies linking regional geochemistry with plant, animal and human health. The effects of major element deficiencies or excesses on plant health are well known; this is not the case for trace elements. In fact, rapid and reliable analytical methods for determining trace element abundances have only recently become available, and it is to be expected that important new information on trace element levels will be forthcoming.

Mills, C. F. Geochemical aspects of the aetiology of trace element related diseases
Plant, J. A., Baldock, J. W. & Smith, B. The role of geochemistry in environmental and epidemiological studies in developing countries: a review
Fordyce, F. M., Masara, D. & Appleton, J. D. Stream sediment, soil and forage chemistry as indicators of cattle mineral status in northeast Zimbabwe
Jumba, I. O., Suttle, N. F., Hunter, E. A. & Wandiga, S. O. Effects of botanical composition, soil origin and composition on mineral concentrations in dry season pastures in western Kenya
Maskall, J. & Thornton, I. The distribution of trace and major elements in Kenyan soil profiles and implications for wildlife nutrition

Karst bauxite deposits are currently investigated as a new resource for rare earth elements (REE) in order to avoid present and future supply shortfalls of these critical metals. The present work focuses on the geochemistry and mineralogy of the REE in karst bauxite deposits of the Catalan Coastal Range (CCR), NE-Spain. It is revealed that the studied bauxitic ores have a dominant breccia and local ooido-pisoidic and pelitomorphic texture.

Colloid systems may be defined as systems containing at least two components: 1) a continuous dispersing medium and 2) a disperse phase. For many years the science of colloids was concerned mainly with the description of the behavior of very small particles. The classical definition of a colloid system described the disperse phase as being comprised of particles or macromolecules smaller than 1000 nm in diameter, but larger than 1 nm. Particles smaller than 1 nm do not exist as a discrete phase, and any system containing them cannot be considered as heterogeneous.

A huge amount of data has been accumulated in the field of high-pressure mineralogy to date (Agee 1998; Stachel 2001; Akaogi 2007; Irifune and Tsuchiya 2007; Kaminsky 2012; and others). Direct study of the substance of the Earth’s mantle using data on the minerals of mantle xenolith and inclusions in natural diamonds is significantly restricted. According to the geothermobarometric estimates, most of such minerals are formed at a depth of 150–200 km, i.e., their associations characterize the P–T conditions of the upper mantle (Sobolev 1977; Sobolev et al. 1997; Taylor and Anand 2004).

The geologic history of the San Manuel-Kalamazoo deposit has provided an opportunity for the examination of vertical and horizontal zoning relationships in a porphyry copper system. Precambrian Oracle "granite," a Laramide monzonite porphyry, and a Laramide dacite porphyry are hosts to zones of potassic, phyllic, argillic, and propylitic assemblages shown to be coaxially arranged outward from a potassic core through phyllic, argillic, and propylitic zones. Alteration zones at depth comprise an outer chlorite-sericite-epidote-magnetite assemblage yielding to an inner zone of quartz-K4eldspar-sericite-chlorite. Mineralization zones are conformable to the alteration zones, the ore zone (with a 0.5% Cu cutoff) overlapping the potassic and phyllic zones.

Chromites forming giant orebodies in the southern part of the Early Palaeozoic ophiolite sequence of the Kempirsai Massif (Kazakhstan, Urals) contain a large number of inclusions, i.e. silicates, sulphides, alloys, arsenides, and fluids. The chromite orebodies are surrounded by dunite envelopes of variable thickness, which show transitional boundaries to harzburgite host rocks. The composition of ore-forming chromites in depleted mantle rocks of the southern part of the massif (Main Ore Field) is rather uniform, showing high cr-number [100Cr/(Cr+Al), 78-84] and mg-number [100Mg/ (Mg + Fe2+), 51-85] values. Smaller bodies of Al-rich spinel in the northern and western part of the massif (Batamshinsk) have variable cr-number (38-60) and mg-number (50-88) values.

Let us start with a question here. Which figure in Fig. 1.1 is the most symmetric? Obviously, figure (c) in Fig. 1.1 has less symmetry than (a) and (b); however, it is difficult to compare symmetries of (a) and (b).
One of the basic tools for describing symmetries of crystal structures is space groups, which describe symmetry of atoms (vertices/points) in a crystal structure. For example, the symmetry of a regular hexagonal tiling of R2 is described by the group P6m, and the space group of the symmetry of a regular three-colored hexagonal tiling (see Fig. 1.2b) is P3m1. Similarly, the group P6m describes the symmetry of a regular hexagonal lattice.

The energy of a molecule consists partly of translational energy, partly of rotational energy, partly of vibrational energy, and partly of electronic energy. For a first approximation these energy contributions can be considered separately. Electronic energy transitions normally give rise to absorption or emission in the ultraviolet and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Pure rotation gives rise to absorption in the microwave region or the far infrared. Molecular vibrations give rise to absorption bands throughout most of the infrared region of the spectrum. In this book we shall mainly be concerned with the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with molecular vibrations and rotations.  <...>