The fundamental question underlying marine geochemistry is 'How do the oceans work as a chemical system?' At present, that question cannot be fully answered. However, the past two decades or so have seen a number of 'quantum leaps' in our understanding of some aspects of marine geochemistry. Three principal factors have made these leaps possible: (a) advances in sampling and analytical techniques; (b) the development of theoretical concepts; and (c) the setting up of large-scale international oceanographic programmes (e.g. DSDP, MANOP, HEBBLE, GEOSECS, TTO, VERTEX, GOFS, SEAREX), which have extended the marine geochemistry database to a global ocean scale. <...>

A quick look at the reference list of this textbook (initially conceived for Italian university students) is sufficient to appreciate the leading role played by North American scientists in the development of geochemistry, and it is a great honor for me to present my appraisal of this fascinating discipline to readers whose mother tongue is English. The fascination of geochemistry rests primarily on its intermediate position between exact sciences (chemistry, physics, mathematics) and natural sciences.

Учебное пособие написано для студентов – геологов, гидрогеологов, нефтяников направлений: 05.03.01 – Геология, по дисциплине «Общая геохимия» и предназначено для решения практических задач с использованием термодинамических методов при анализе природных геохимических процессов. Пособие может быть полезно также географам, биологам и лицам, использующим термодинамические методы в своей работе

Isotope geochemistry has grown over the last 60 years to become one of the most important fields in the earth sciences. It has two broad subdivisions, namely, radiogenic isotope geochemistry and stable isotope geochemistry. These subdivisions reflect the two primary reasons why the relative abundances of isotopes of elements vary in nature, which are radioactive decay and chemical fractionation; in this context, “fractionation” is any process in which the isotopes of the same element behave differently.

Chapter 1 Geochemical and Sedimentation History of Neogene Lacustrine Sediments from the Valjevo-Mionica Basin (Serbia)
Aleksandra Šajnović, Ksenija Stojanović, Vladimir Simić and Branimir Jovančićević
Chapter 2 Arsenic Geochemistry in Groundwater System
Dionisios Panagiotaras, George Panagopoulos, Dimitrios Papoulis and Pavlos Avramidis

Chapter 3 Geochemistry of Hydrothermal Alteration in Volcanic Rocks
Silvina Marfil and Pedro Maiza

The Mediterranean Sea lies between Europe, Asia and Africa in an area famous for its ancient civilizations and cultural developments. It was an area where marine navigation was developed and where many trade routes intersected. The publication of one of the first monographs on marine geology and geography by Marsilli in 1725 suggests that the Mediterranean Sea was the cradle of marine geology.

It is known that methane (and, in smaller amounts, higher hydrocarbons) is liberated during the coalification process. The amounts of methane developed vary in the different stages of coalification. Calculations on the basis of ultimate analyses of coals of different rank done by Mott (1943), Patteisky(1952, 1964) and Jüntgen and Karweil (1966) lead to the conclusion that greater amounts of methane start to be developed when the stage of bituminous coals with about 30% of volatile matter (dry and ash-free) is reached, whereas the gas developed from lignite and less metamorphosed bituminous coals is mainly carbon dioxide.

This book is about geochemical data and how they can be used to obtain information about geological processes. Conventionally geochemical data are subdivided into four main categories: the major elements, trace elements, radiogenic isotopes and stable isotopes (see Table 1.1 ). These four types of geochemical data each form the subject of a chapter of this book. Each chapter shows how the particular form of geochemical data can be used and how it provides clues to the origin of the suite of rocks in question. Different methods of data presentation are discussed and their relative merits evaluated. <...>

Геохимические особенности осадочных пород всегда несут ту или иную информацию о происхождении этих пород - и не только о фациях седиментогенеза (как это мыслилось на заре исследований в 1960-70-е гг.), но и в более общем смысле - о процессах литогенеза в широком понимании этого термина, т.е. включая процессы выветривания, мобилизации, переноса, седиментации, диагенеза, катагенеза и, наконец, - рециклизации. Поэтому собранный и систематизированный в этой книге огромный материал не только дает подробную характеристику геохимических (а также минеральных и органических) индикаторов литогенеза, но и является, в сущности,