Latest Geochemistry Stories
U.S. scientists have developed a new, integrated, ten-year science plan to better understand the details of Earth's carbon cycle and people's role in it. Understanding the carbon cycle is central for mitigating climate change and developing a sustainable future. The plan builds on the first such plan, published in 1999, but identifies new research areas such as the role of humans as agents and managers of carbon cycling and climate change, the direct impact of greenhouse gases on ecosystems...
TSX-V: IRN VANCOUVER, Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Iron Creek Capital Corp. (TSX-V: IRN - "Iron Creek") is pleased to report that a reverse circulation drill rig has been secured and that drilling is underway at its wholly owned Pampa Sur gold-silver Project. The principal targets are low-sulphidation, precious metals quartz veins of a type similar to those found at Yamana's El Penon mine located along trend some 40km to the north-northeast. The initial program at Pampa Sur...
Should the periodic table bear a warning label in the 21st century or be revised with a lesson about elemental supply and demand? If so, that lesson could start with one element considered a staple of life – but growing endangered, like the Asiatic dhole – phosphorus. Why is phosphorus pivotal? Phosphorus is in the DNA of all plants and animals. It is a key ingredient in fertilizer, but high quality phosphate deposits for mining are limited in both quantity and locality. Indeed,...
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists have discovered that bacterial communication could have a significant impact on the planet's climate. In the ocean, bacteria coalesce on tiny particles of carbon-rich detritus sinking through the depths. WHOI marine biogeochemists Laura Hmelo, Benjamin Van Mooy, and Tracy Mincer found that these bacteria send out chemical signals to discern if other bacteria are in the neighborhood. If enough of their cohorts are nearby, then bacteria...
A new insight into global photosynthesis, the chemical process governing how ocean and land plants absorb and release carbon dioxide, has been revealed in research that will assist scientists to more accurately assess future climate change. In a paper published today in Nature, a team of US, Dutch and Australian scientists have estimated that the global rate of photosynthesis, the chemical process governing the way ocean and land plants absorb and release CO2, occurs 25% faster than...
VAL-D'OR, Quebec, Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- NioGold Mining Corporation (TSX-V:NOX) ("NioGold") is pleased to report on the latest drilling results at the Marban Block property, located in the Malartic gold camp, Abitibi region of Quebec. The drilling program is conducted under the terms of the Aurizon Mines Ltd. ("Aurizon") earn-in option agreement. Highlights from 10 new drill holes at the Marban deposit include an intersection at depth of 7.0 grams of gold per tonne (g/t Au) over...
-- BLEG (Bulk Leach Extractable Gold) results highlight four key areas for follow up -- New areas will become priority for additional geological and geochemical surveys TORONTO, Sept. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Loncor Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "Loncor") (TSX-V: "LN", NYSE-AMEX:"LON") is pleased to announce encouraging initial results of the regional BLEG (Bulk Leach Extractable Gold) geochemical stream sediment survey over its...
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Picarro, Inc., the world's leading provider of instruments for carbon and water cycle measurements, today announced a new carbon isotope analyzer with three times the precision and four times the stability of Picarro's current industry-leading isotopic CO2 instruments. With a performance specification of 0.1 per mil precision for 13C/12C ratio measurements in CO2 in a 5 minute measurement and 0.5 per mil or less drift over 24 hours, the...
Globally, irrigation increases agricultural productivity by an amount roughly equivalent to the entire agricultural output of the U.S., according to a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study. That adds up to a sizeable impact on carbon uptake from the atmosphere. It also means that water shortages — already forecasted to be a big problem as the world warms — could contribute to yet more warming through a positive feedback loop. The new research quantified irrigation's contribution...
GNH: TSX Venture GOLHF: OTCQX TORONTO, Aug. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Golden Hope Mines (TSXV: GNH)(OTCQX: GOLHF) - Golden Hope Mines Limited is pleased to report an update on its Summer 2011 diamond drill campaign in Southeastern Quebec, Canada. The initial program is for 6 holes or approximately 2800 metres. SGS Canada-Geostat, independent technical advisors to Golden Hope and in close co-operation with the GNH technical team, designed this drilling program to verify past...
Latest Geochemistry Reference Libraries
Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar (typically andesine), hornblende, and/or pyroxene. Varieties deficient in hornblende and other dark minerals are called leucodiorite. It is often described as "salt and pepper" when composed largely of light-colored minerals randomly interspersed with dark minerals. When olivine and more iron-rich augite are present, the rock grades into ferrodiorite, which is transitional to...
Gabbro is a dark, coarse-grained, intrusive igneous rock chemically equivalent to basalt. It is a plutonic rock, formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools slowly into a hard, coarsely crystalline mass. It is dense, greenish or dark-colored and contains varied percentages of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, amphibole, and olivine (called olivine gabbro when olivine is present in large quantities). Quartz gabbros are also known to occur and are probably derived...
Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or present in relatively small amounts. The feldspars are alkaline in character and the dark mineral is usually hornblende. Soda-lime feldspars may be present in small quantities. The term syenite was originally applied to hornblende granite like that of Syene in Egypt, from which the name is derived. Syenite is not a common rock, some of the more important...
