| Aqueous Environmental Geochemistry | |
| LECTURERS: | PD Dr. U. Mäder |
| SCOPE: | Fundamentals of aqueous geochemistry, equilibrium thermodynamics and kinetics |
| HELD AT: | BE |
| CATEGORY: | General principles |
| ECTS Credits: | 2.5 |
| PREREQUISITES: | |
| REQUISITES: | |
| FORMAT: | |
| FREQUENCY: | biennially in fall semester, held in even years |
| CONTENTS: | Knowledge of the form and reactivity of chemical species dissolved in aqueous solutions is a prerequisite to understanding almost all processes of rock–water interaction, be they at the Earth’s surface or deep in the crust. This course covers: review of thermodynamic principles; aqueous speciation; concentration-activity relationship; equilibrium constant; solubility; ion-exchange, sorption and surface complexation; pH-dependence of speciation and solubility; redox-dependence of speciation and solubility; species-predominance and activity-activity ratio stability diagrams; kinetics of mineral dissolution and precipitation (transition state theory); aqueous electrolyte theory; introduction to PHREEQC and exercises using PHREEQC. The focus is on inorganic geochemistry, including environmentally relevant components (e.g., carbon system, sulphur system, nitrogen system, and heavy metals). This course seamlessly leads to the follow-up course Geochemical Modelling I. Students will understand processes and theory of simple systems of rock-water interaction, and learn a “geochemical and quantitative way of thinking” about a part of how natural and man-influenced groundwater systems function. |
| ASSESSMENT: | Written examination |
(prer): Courses with prerequisites.