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The Aqueous Geochemistry Research and Development Project provides a means for researchers to pursue potentially fertile research topics, anticipate and develop new scientific approaches, investigate modeling applications, and develop new or improve current methodologies in the field of aqueous geochemistry. These research efforts will lead to future multi-disciplinary research opportunities and the maintenance of a state-of-the-art aqueous geochemistry research group within the Geologic Discipline. Many projects within the USGS and the Mineral Resources Program rely on lowtemperature aqueous geochemistry as an integral part of their study of earth processes. However, development of new aqueous geochemistry approaches, modeling applications, or method development can be a high-risk, long-term activity that is beyond the scope and resources of most topical projects. The Aqueous Geochemistry Research and Development Project affords the opportunity for researchers to develop some of these approaches, applications, and methods, which can then feed back into research efforts in topical projects. The Aqueous Geochemistry Research and Development Project also maintains Mineral Resources Program access to the powerful Geochemist's Workbench suite of computer programs licensed through the University of Illinois.
The overarching theme of the integrated Environmental Geochemistry projects is to understand, and ultimately to quantify the behavior and distribution of environmentally significant elements as they are dispersed from their sources through the environment. Sources of elements in mineralized terranes include natural and anthropogenic entities, such as ore deposits, their host rocks, mill tailings, and mine waste. Characterization of these source materials involves identifying the mineral phases where the toxic elements reside, the speciation of the toxic elements (e.g., oxidation state and type of bonding to the mineral structure), and the rates and mechanisms of release from the mineral structure. Once released from their sources, physical, chemical, and biological processes act to redistribute and transform dissolved and particulate forms of the elements.
In order to achieve an understanding of these natural systems, the strategy of the integrated Environmental Geochemistry projects is to conduct interdisciplinary process-oriented studies at scales ranging from molecular to ecoregional, and to develop dynamic models of element cycling that are transferable among environmental systems. The process studies provide the fundamental information for developing conceptual models of the cycling of elements through the environment. Conceptual models synthesize our understanding of element cycling in a given system by identifying the reservoirs of elements (i.e., repositories where elements accumulate or are stored within the system) and the processes that control the amounts of elements in the reservoirs. The transformation of conceptual models into quantitative, predictive system models requires the development of quantitative interrelationships as defined by natural active processes among reservoirs.
| Kathleen S. Smith | Box 25046 MS 973 Denver, CO 80225 |
(303) 236-5788 ksmith@usgs.gov |
|---|
U.S.
Department of the Interior || U.S. Geological
Survey
