Readings from the Treatise on Geochemistry
- 1st Edition - March 2, 2010
- Latest edition
- Editors: Heinrich D Holland, Karl K. Turekian
- Language: English
Readings from the Treatise on Geochemistry offers an interdisciplinary reference for scientists, researchers and upper undergraduate and graduate level geochemistry students… Read more
Readings from the Treatise on Geochemistry offers an interdisciplinary reference for scientists, researchers and upper undergraduate and graduate level geochemistry students that is more affordable than the full Treatise. For professionals, this volume will provide an overview of the field as a whole. For students, it will provide more in-depth introductory content than is found in broad-based geochemistry textbooks. Articles were selected from chapters across all volumes of the full Treatise, and include: The Origin and Earliest History of the Earth, Compositional Evolution of the Mantle, Evolution of Sedimentary Rocks, Soil Formation, Geochemistry of Groundwater, Geologic History of Seawater, Hydrothermal Processes, and Biogeochemistry of Primary Production in the Sea.
- Comprehensive, interdisciplinary and authoritative content selected by leading subject experts
- Robust illustrations, figures and tables
- Affordably priced sampling of content from the full Treatise on Geochemistry
Origin of the Elements, The Origin and Earliest History of the Earth, Compositional Evolution of the Mantle, Compositional Model for the Earth's Core, Composition of the Continental Crust, The History of Planetary Degassing as Recorded by Noble Gases, Soil Formation, Global Occurrence of Major Elements in Rivers, Geochemistry of Groundwater, The Oceanic CaCO3 Cycle, Hydrothermal Processes, The Geologic History of Seawater, Geochemistry of Fine-grained Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks, Evolution of Sedimentary Rocks, Biogeochemistry of Primary Production in the Sea, The Contemporary Carbon Cycle, Environmental Geochemistry of Radioactive Contamination
- Edition: 1
- Latest edition
- Published: March 2, 2010
- Language: English
HH
Heinrich D Holland
KT
Karl K. Turekian
KARL KAREKIN TUREKIAN (1927–2013)
Karl Turekian was a man of remarkable scientific breadth, with innumerable important contributions to marine geochemistry, atmospheric chemistry, cosmochemistry, and global geochemical cycles. He was mentor to a long list of students, postdocs, and faculty (at Yale and elsewhere), a leader in geochemistry, a prolific author and editor, and had a profound influence in shaping his department at Yale University.
In 1949 Karl joined a graduate program in the new field of geochemistry at Columbia University under Larry Kulp with students Dick Holland and his fellow Wheaton alums Wally Broecker and Paul Gast. This was a propitious time as Columbia’s Lamont Geological Observatory had only been established a few years beforehand. It was during these years that Karl began to acquire the skills that led to his rapid emergence as a leader in geochemistry.
After a brief postdoc at Columbia, Karl accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Geology at Yale University in 1956, where he set out to create a program in geochemistry from scratch. Karl spent the rest of his life on the Yale faculty and was immersed in geochemistry to the end. He was deeply involved in editing this edition of the massive Treatise on Geochemistry, which has grown to 15 volumes, until only a month before his passing away on 15 March 2013.
Karl turned to the study of deep-sea cores and especially the analysis of trace elements to study the wide variety of geochemical processes that are recorded there. His work with Hans Wedepohl in writing and tabulating the Handbook of Geochemistry (Turekian, 1969) was a major accomplishment and this work was utilized by many generations of geochemists. Teaming up with his graduate students and in association with Paul Gast, he developed a mass spectrometry lab at Yale and began to thoroughly investigate the Rb–Sr isotopic systematics of deep-sea clays, not only as repositories but also as sites for exchange to occur and serve as a control of the geochemistry of ocean water.
Karl was a major player in a revolutionary marine geochemistry campaign known as the Geochemical Ocean Section Study (GEOSECS). GEOSECS was part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration in the 1970s, and it took aim at measuring and understanding the distribution of geochemical tracers for circulation and biogeochemistry in the world’s oceans.. It was also within this same time period that another large-scale ‘geochemical’ sampling program known as Apollo 11 came along. Here Karl utilized his INAA techniques to examine some of the first returned lunar samples for their trace elements. Karl was particularly proud of being the holder of the Silliman Chair and being curator of the Yale meteorite collection. In a continuation of Karl’s foray into cosmochemistry, Andy Davis came to Yale to study with Karl and Sydney Clark.
Equally important to the legacy of what Karl did for science in his research contributions on and across the planet was his influence on scientists. His legendary daily coffee hours were a training ground for many generations of students, postdocs, and visitors, as well as a proving ground for Karl’s own ideas. He had a great love for vigorous scientific debate. Karl loved to question and be questioned. Nothing was sacred and, in the act of questioning as in exploring, new science arises. He was extraordinarily supportive of people, always had time to discuss and listen, and helped everyone from students to his fellow faculty at Yale. Karl was twice department chair and even when not chair, a steadying influence in times of departmental difficulty.
Andrew M. Davis, Lawrence Grossman and Albert S. Colman
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Mark H. Thiemens
University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
This Obituary was first published in PNAS, Vol. 110, No. 41, 16290–16291, 10th October 2013 © 2013