Elements Toolkit

ELEMENTS Toolkit presents new technological developments of interest to our readers. What laboratory techniques, equipment, or computational methods are you dependent on to obtain the best results? This column explores the “tools” used by petrologists, geochemists, and mineralogists.

 

Send your ideas or suggestions for future articles to the Elements Executive Editor or to the Column Editor, Michael Wiedenbeck, at michael.wiedenbeck@gfz-potsdam.de

INNOVATING AND NETWORKING GLOBAL GEOCHEMICAL DATA RESOURCES THROUGH ONEGEOCHEMISTRY

By Alexander M. Prent, Dominik C. Hezel, Marthe Klöcking, Lesley Wyborn, Rebecca Farrington, Kirsten Elger, Lucia Profeta, Angus L. Nixon, and Kerstin Lehnert | June, 2023

A vision of the not-too-distant future: Imagine yourself as a researcher who is making plans for fieldwork in the Andes Mountains. You are behind your computer and load a three-dimensional visualisation of the Earth and its geology to investigate the research already done in the southern Patagonian regions. You zoom in to the mountain range of interest and select various data layers to show samples, their chemical and isotopic compositions, as well as rock ages for further reference. One area shows particularly young ages and a single click brings up an image showing the thermal and chemical evolution of the rocks, bringing to life the events experienced by that part of the Earth.

ALKALINITY IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

By Nicholas J. Tosca and Benjamin M. Tutolo | February, 2023

The articles in this issue highlight interdisciplinary approaches to the science of alkaline lakes, but one important concept links all of them together: alkalinity. Here, we discuss what alkalinity is, why it is important, and how it is typically measured. We review two different but complementary definitions of alkalinity that offer an intuitive starting point for understanding how this critical parameter responds to biogeochemical processes.

Measuring Noble Gases for Thermochronology

By Peter K. Zeitler and Marissa M. Tremblay | October, 2020

The articles in this issue show how applications of noble gas thermochronology can help answer fundamental questions about Earth and planetary processes. Here, we discuss how noble gas measurements are actually made. We review the different methods used to extract and isolate noble gases from natural materials and to measure those gas concentrations and isotopic compositions using mass spectrometry.

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