Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

Educational goals: Knowledge and use of the main methods of sampling and hydrogeochemical analysis. Ability to design and interpretation of hydrogeochemical surveys.

Learning ouctomes: Knowledge of the main physical parameters that regulate the geochemical mobility of exogenous factors in the environment.
Identification of geochemical anomalies and their relation to the geological environment.

Programme

Water properties. Solubility and hydrolysis of the main minerals of the continental crust. Main factors controlling the behavior of elements in water: ionic potential, pH, redox potential, adsorption. pH-Eh diagrams. Salinity of seawater and freshwater. Chemical composition of seawater and freshwater. Plotting of chemical composition of freshwater. Application of hydrogeochemistry to solving geological problems. Parameters for water quality. Italian regulations for healthy water and WHO recommendations. Uses of freshwater. Commercial bottle waters. Examples of commercial bottle waters from Italy and abroad. Pollution of freshwater. Examples of polluted waters from Italy. The geochemistry of stable isotopes. Isotopic fractionation. Definition of δ, 1000 lnα, Δ. Stable-isotope international analytical standards. Main natural processes of isotopic fractionation: reactions of isotopic exchange, isotopic effects of kinetic reactions, isotopic effects of vapor tension reactions. Applications of isotopes to the hydrological cycle: Rayleigh’s equation, variations of δD and δ18O during the isothermal condensation of aqueous vapor. The geochemistry of unstable isotopes. Strontium isotopes in natural waters. Mineral saturation index, geochemical modeling by software.

Adopted texts

Testi consigliati J.I. DREVER (1997) - The Geochemistry of Natural Waters (II ed.). Ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New York. P. CELICO (1996) - Prospezioni idrogeologiche. Ed. Liguori, Napoli. G. FAURE (1991) - Principles of Isotope Geology (II edit.). Ed. J. Wiley and Sons, New York.
Lecture notes

Prerequisites

Knowledge of the Geochemistry of the Earth's crust, Geochemistry of the hydrosphere and Geochemistry of the atmosphere.

Exam modes

The level of achievement of the training objectives previously indicated.