April 7, 2011
The importance of determining molecular-scale reaction mechanisms in geochemistry At the molecular scale, most geochemical reactions are complex, multistep processes in which the elementary steps occur too quickly for direct observation. Together, these steps define an overall reaction mechanism. Although thermodynamic descriptions of geochemical processes are well established in many cases, knowledge of the mechanism…
Read MoreMarch 30, 2011
Source: Kryshna Avina, ESD Don DePaolo is now the Associate Laboratory Director of Energy and Environmental Sciences, a position that oversees the Chemical Sciences, Environmental Energy Technologies, Materials Sciences, and Earth Sciences Divisions. The appointment, effective April 1, was made by the UC Board of Regents in a vote held March 17. DePaolo served as Acting Associate Laboratory Director of Energy and Environmental…
Read MoreMarch 10, 2011
Peter Nico The amount of carbon residing in world soils at any moment is greater than all the carbon in the atmosphere and biosphere (living things) combined. In fact, among the fast cycling global carbon reservoirs, soil is exceeded in quantitative importance only by the oceans. The large amount of carbon in soils makes understanding…
Read MoreMarch 10, 2011
Source: LBNL TABL Jillian Banfield, a Berkeley Lab Researcher and UC Berkeley Professor who was named the 2011 North American Laureate by the L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Foundation, is featured in a video highlighting her research. Banfield is a geomicrobiologist and biogeochemist whose work focuses on the fundamental relationship between microorganisms and their natural environments.…
Read MoreMarch 4, 2011
Source: LBNL TABL Researchers — including Earth Sciences Division Director Don DePaolo — have performed a micro-probe analysis of the core and outer layers of a pea-sized piece of a meteorite some 4.57 billion years old to reconstruct the history of its formation, providing the first evidence that dust particles like this one experienced wildly…
Read MoreDecember 10, 2010
The mineral goethite (a-FeOOH) is one of the most common iron minerals on Earth’s surface. As the chief constituent in many forms of natural rust, it is most obvious as the yellow or brown-red coloring agent in soils and sediments. It is also a microscopic to nanoscale mineral, with a high surface area and high…
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