August 2016

Goldschmidt conferences

Goldschmidt2017 Call for sessions and workshops open

Goldschmidt2017 will be held in the beautiful city of Paris, 13-18 August 2017, and we certainly hope to see many of you there!

The theme leaders have now identified 23 themes and the whole geochemistry community is invited to submit suggestions for sessions before 1 November. Please note that any suggested sessions must be broad enough to attract at least 25 abstract submissions.

If you are interested in organising a pre-conference workshop or Town Hall meeting, you are also invited to submit a proposal before 1 November. Find out more.

Listen to BBC Radio Program from Goldschmidt2016

The BBC World Service traveled to Goldschmidt2016 in June to record an episode of the radio program The Forum. The episode, "The Unpredictable Planet: Understanding Volcanoes and Earthquakes," is now available for online listening on the BBC's website. It is also available as a free podcast from the iTunes store.

Society News

Nominate deserving colleagues for an award

Recognition of scientific excellence at all stages of one's career is crucial. Should you know of deserving colleagues, nominate them for an EAG Award or GS/EAG Fellowship. Deadline for GS/EAG Fellowship nominations is 31 October. Deadline for EAG Awards is 15 November. We also provide guidance on how to write a nomination and support letter.

Urey Award: recognizes scientific excellence over a career

Science Innovation Award (named after Heinz Lowenstam for his work in biogeochemistry): recognizes scientists within 30 years from the start of PhD

Houtermans Award: recognizes scientists within 12 years from the start of PhD

GS-EAG Geochemical Fellowship: recognizes scientists who have made major contributions to the field of geochemistry

2016 Distinguished Lecture Program

ECS

We are very happy to report that the 2016 Distinguished Lecture Program is now finalised. Prof. Alexandre Anesio, 2016 Distinguished Lecturer, will provide lectures on biogeochemistry in institutions in Ukraine, Romania, Slovenia and Poland from 21 to 28 October.
If you are located in one of these institutions (or a nearby one), you are invited to attend as the lectures are open to all.

Elements new website is live!

The new Elements website has gone live!!! Check it out at elementsmagazine.org. What's new?
1. The design. New layout, menus, and pages. It's much easier to access content, connect with the participating societies, and navigate through hundreds of articles.
2. It's PC, tablet, and mobile device friendly.
3. Our latest issues can be viewed in either HTML or PDF formats.
4. A cool meeting calendar that is populated with scientific meetings, workshops, conferences, venues, dates, and even Google Maps!
Oh...and so much more! We hope you enjoy using the new Elements website.

Elements: Deep-Mined Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste

The construction of geological disposal facilities for radioactive waste will become a major focus of geological, mineralogical, and geochemical effort in coming years. Geological disposal raises complex technical issues, but it is also at the center of social and political controversy. Different countries have very different waste inventories and quantities of waste... Read more

EAG members will receive their print copy shortly and have online access to all back issues of Elements (user id = email address, password = EAG membership number). To find your membership number, login to your member area.

EAG Student Sponsorship: next deadline is 1 September

ECS

The EAG Student Sponsorship Program sponsors 12 students each year, up to 500 Euros per student, to attend geochemistry related short courses, summer schools, workshops or conferences located in Europe (except for the Goldschmidt conference). The next application deadline is 1 September. Find out more.

EAG Publications

Recently published in Geochemical Perspectives Letters

The statistical mechanical basis of the triple isotope fractionation relationship
J.A. Hayles, X. Cao, H. Bao

Multiple stable isotope relationships have found a growing variety of uses in geochemistry and cosmochemistry. Approximations to the statistical-mechanical models for predicting isotope effects have led to the notion that mass fractionation laws are constrained to a “canonical” range of possible values. [...]

Immiscible C-H-O fluids formed at subduction zone conditions
Y. Li

Earth’s long-term carbon cycle, which is regulated by subduction and volcanism, is critical for understanding Earth’s structure, dynamics, and climate change. However, the mechanisms for carbon mobility in subduction zones remain largely unresolved. [...]

Recently published in Geochemical Perspectives

Siderophile Elements in Tracing Planetary Formation and Evolution
Richard J. Walker (University of Maryland)

In this issue, the author examines and provides his own perspective of the history of the application and current state of our understanding of siderophile elements in cosmochemistry and high temperature geochemistry.

EAG Blogosphere

Foord Pegmatite Symposium in Golden, Colorado

[By Renata Barros] The 2nd Eugene E. Foord Pegmatite Symposium took place between 15th-19th July 2016 at the Colorado School of Mines, located in Golden, Colorado, USA. The meeting was dedicated to Dr. Eugene E. Foord (1946-1998), an American mineralogist who made valuable contributions to pegmatite studies, including involvement in the description of over 30 new mineral species. Read more

Geochemistry making the news

Hot 'new' material found to exist in nature

[Science Daily] One of the hottest new materials is a class of porous solids known as metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs. Now, a surprising discovery reveals that MOFs also exist in nature -- albeit in the form of rare minerals found so far only in Siberian coal mines. Read more

The volcanoes no one has ever seen

[BBC News] We do not see them erupt, yet more than half of the Earth's crust can be attributed to their dramatic explosions. It sounds almost like a riddle. But when you understand the facts, the truth might be even more surprising. The remnants of hundreds of thousands of deep-sea eruptions lie on the ocean floor... Read more

Marine carbon sinking rates confirm importance of polar oceans

[Science Daily] About the same amount of atmospheric carbon that goes into creating plants on land goes into the bodies of tiny marine plants known as plankton. When these plants die and sink, bacteria feed on their sinking corpses and return their carbon to the seawater. Read more

Mysterious, ice-buried Cold War military base may be unearthed

[Science] Mysterious, ice-buried Cold War military base may be unearthed by climate change. It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie: a secret military operation hidden beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet. But that’s exactly what transpired at Camp Century during the Cold War. Read more

Jupiter’s shadow turns Io’s atmosphere to frost every 42 hrs

[Science] Think your neck of the woods gets cold at night? On Io, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, the atmosphere turns to frost and collapses every time the orb passes into the planet’s shadow—for about 2 hours during each of the moon’s 42-hour orbits. Now, for the first time... Read more

Comic relief

A humorous look at the world of science

Check our latest cartoons, created by geochemists for geochemists in need of comic relief... You will also find the most recent cartoon in the Elements August 2016 issue.

Job opportunities

Current job opportunities

ECS

Receive job ads as they are posted: like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter (@EAG_). To post a position on the EAG job page (free of charge): click here.

PhD & MSc positions:

PhD position - euroPAH ITN: PAHs and the organic inventory of meteorites and comets - University of Leiden

PhD position: Role of pentavalent uranium in U(VI) reduction by microorganisms and by minerals - EPFL

PhD position: Spatial and temporal variability of weathering rates and water flows in an elementary watershed (Strengbach Catchment- France) (more) - University of Strasbourg

Doctoral Position in Isotope Geochemistry of Planetary Processes - Freie Universität Berlin

PhD position: Organic geochemistry of soils over concealed mineralization: Linking source to sink to strategy - University of British Columbia

PostDoctoral and Fellowship positions:

Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship in Geosciences - Pennsylvania State University

Senior Post-doctoral Research Associate 'Modelling Enhanced Weathering Geochemistry' - University of Sheffield

Postdoctoral Researcher in marine ecology-biogeochemistry - University of Helsinki

Postdoctoral position on biogeochemical modeling of deep-sea sponges (3 years) - University of Utrecht

Postdoctoral position in Liquid cell transmission electron microscopy - University of Wyoming