Modern Methods of Geochemical Analysis

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. Introduction

   • R. E. Robinson, W. R. Liebenberg, S. A. Hiemstra

   Pages 1-9

3. Statistics

   • A. B. Calder

   Pages 11-51

4. Chemical Analysis and Sample Preparation

   • V. C. O. Schüler

   Pages 53-71

5. Ion-Exchange Chromatography

   • H. F. Walton

   Pages 73-96

6. Colorimetry

   • Gordon A. Parker, D. F. Boltz

   Pages 97-126

7. Infrared Spectrophotometry

   • W. M. Tuddenham, J. D. Stephens

   Pages 127-168

8. Optical Emission Spectroscopy

   • Armin P. Langheinrich, D. Blair Roberts

   Pages 169-204

9. Atomic Absorption

   • L. R. P. Butler, M. L. Kokot

   Pages 205-243

10. X-Ray Techniques

    • H. A. Liebhafsky, H. G. Pfeiffer

    Pages 245-270

11. Radiometric Techniques

    • L. Rybach

    Pages 271-318

12. Nuclear Activation Analysis

    • L. E. Fite, E. A. Schweikert, R. E. Wainerdi, E. A. Uken

    Pages 319-350

13. Mass Spectrometry

    • J. N. Weber, P. Deines

    Pages 351-397

The founders of geology at the beginning of the last century were suspicious oflaboratories. Hutton's well-known dictum illustrates the point: "There are also superficial reasoning men . . . they judge of the great oper­ ations of the mineral kingdom from having kindled a fire, and looked into the bottom of a little crucible. " The idea was not unreasonable; the earth is so large and its changes are so slow and so complicated that labo­ ratory tests and experiments were of little help. The earth had to be studied in its own terms and geology grew up as a separate science and not as a branch of physics or chemistry. Its practitioners were, for the most part, experts in structure, stratigraphy, or paleontology, not in silicate chemistry or mechanics. The chemists broke into this closed circle before the physicists did. The problems of the classification of rocks, particularly igneous rocks, and of the nature and genesis of ores are obviously chemical and, by the mid- 19th century, chemistry was in a state where rocks could be effectively analyzed, and a classification built up depending partly on chemistry and partly on the optical study of thin specimens. Gradually the chemical study of rocks became one of the central themes of earth science.

• Stratigraphy
• chemical analysis
• chemistry
• classification
• geochemistry
• geology
• geoscience
• igneous rock
• isotope
• mineral
• paleontology

• Activation Analysis Research Laboratory, College of Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA

  Richard E. Wainerdi

• Scientific Advisory Council, Pretoria, South Africa

  Ernst A. Uken

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