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The Oceans and Marine Geochemistry edited by H. Elderfield, 2003. Volume 6 of Treatise on Geochemistry edited by H. D. Holland & K. K. Turekian, Elsevier-Pergamon, Oxford. 646 pp.

Institute of Ocean Sciences, Canada

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

It is daunting to take up the review of a 650-page book that presents 21 chapters covering the gamut of interests that absorb modern marine geochemists. Offsetting that challenge is the potential reward of gaining a deep appreciation of modern marine geochemistry from the writings of experts. This book dazzles. Given the eminence of authors who have written these chapters, one expects a high level of science, but the presentation also achieves an exceptional and sustained quality of clarity both in text and figures. The cover picture of two carbonate-sequestering species, a coccolith and a foram, together with a dedication to Harmon Craig, John Edmond and Ceasare Emiliani, leads the reader to expect carbonate to occupy a rather large part of the book, and so it does. But this book is much more than that.

Focused predominantly on the blue ocean, topical chapters include physical chemistry (Ch. 6.01), trace metal cycling (Chs 6.02, 6.05), gases in seawater (Ch. 6.03), particle processes and the biological pump (Chs 6.04, 6.09, 6.10, 6.18), organic matter cycling and the application of alkenones to thermometry (Chs 6.06, 6.15), hydrothermal processes (Ch. 6.07), the application of tracers to ocean mixing (Ch. 6.08), sediment diagenesis (Ch. 6.11), geochronometry of marine deposits (Ch. 6.12), quite a few chapters examining past oceans and ocean processes as reflected by a wide range of isotopic and elemental tracers (Chs 6.13, 6.14, 6.16, 6.17, 6.20, 6.21), and one chapter looking exclusively at CaCO₃ in the ocean (Ch. 6.19). Although each chapter may be read in isolation, I would recommend anyone interested in a particular topic to peruse the index and read the three or four chapters that pertain, as each chapter offers a different emphasis and different approach.

In my mind, several chapters stand out. In ‘Tracers of ocean mixing’, Jenkins presents . . . [Full Text of this Article]