DESCRIPTION

Chemical equilibria and kinetics in natural water and at the mineral-water interface to help understand the distributions of aqueous species at and near the earth's surface and man's influence on them.

OBJECTIVES

This course is designed to help students understand the processes that occur that determine the compositions of natural waters. For instance, why does the Mississippi have the composition that we observe and why is it different from the Rhine? Why does deposition of acids from the atmosphere cause some lakes to be acidified while others are not? What controls the pH dependence of mineral dissolution? What sorption and oxidation/reduction reactions control contaminants in ground water?

The teaching method consists of three lectures a week, problem sets, term paper and oral presentations.

TOPICAL OUTLINE

1. Review of first and second law of thermodynamics
2. Acids and bases
3. Activity coefficients and Debye-Huckel theory
4. Electrolyte solutions
5. Buffer solutions
6. Chemical speciaton calculations
7. Dissolved carbon dioxide
8. Organic substances in natural water
9. Oxidation and reduction reactions in aqueous solutions
10. Mineral solubility in surface waters
11. Mineral-solution interface geochemistry
12. Mineral surface electric double layers
13. Surface tension and colloid stability
14. Regulation of heavy and trace elements by mineral surfaces
15. Controls on the weathering rate of minerals