Current course offerings

Please Note: Course profiles marked as not available may still be in development.

Course description

This course introduces 2nd year students to the broad field of geochemistry that underpins much of the modern Earth Sciences. Geochemistry is critical to our understanding of low-temperature processes at Earth¿s surface, high temperature processes deep within the Earth and the cosmochemical processes responsible for the birth of our solar system. The course emphasises the use of trace elements and isotopes as tools to understand Earth¿s evolution placing the emphasis on `geo¿ rather than `chemistry¿. In the first part of the course, you will learn about the origin of chemical elements, the formation of the solar system and the differentiation of the Earth including the development of continental crust. The course then examines surface processes that have made our planet habitable including weathering of continental crust and its linkages to the carbon cycle and climate. Finally we examine how basaltic lavas probe the mantle and subduction of oceanic crust recycles chemical elements from the Earth¿s surface reservoirs back into the mantle. During the course you will gain an understanding of how different trace elements and isotopes are used to decipher the nature and timing of a huge range of processes in Earth Science and you will gain an appreciation of how to interpret published geochemical data as well as its limitations.