EACS240

Environmental geochemistry draws from concepts in earth, climate, and environmental sciences, biology, and chemistry to study the behavior of natural and anthropogenic materials as they cycle through the various components of the Earth System. In this introduction to the field, students explore rock-water interactions, chemical equilibria, and biogeochemical cycling and develop field, laboratory, and modeling skills to work on local current environmental problems. Students may investigate climate change; mitigation and adaptation; surface and groundwater contamination by salt, arsenic, nutrients, and/or heavy metals; acid mine drainage; and the history of atmospheric lead deposition. The laboratory includes fieldwork, chemical analysis of environmental samples using inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy, and stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry and modeling using STELLA. Prerequisite(s): any 100-level earth and climate sciences course.