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A geochemist's Periodic Table of Elements
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/06251711-geochemists-periodic-table.html
My love for the Periodic Table hit a rough patch when I was a sophomore in college, when I took Mineralogy as a part of my geology major. I was learning a lot about how different kinds of atoms built up the rocks around me, but the Periodic Table never seemed to provide me with the information I needed. So it was a real pleasure a couple of months ago to follow a link Tweeted by AGU blogger Ryan Anderson, which took me to a Geochemist's Periodic Table. While it looks somewhat familiar, it represents a whole 'nother kind of information. This is not a new publication, but it was new to me.
(snipped giant image)
The Periodic Table of Elements that is displayed in most chemistry classrooms typically shows information of interest to chemists (no surprise there). The investigation and experiment that led to the production of the Periodic Table involved studying the elements in their native state, or in solution, or in covalently bonded compounds with precise chemical formulae.
Geologists don't often deal with native elements or covalently bonded compounds. They deal with minerals, which are mostly not either one of those. A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic, homogeneous, crystalline solid with a definite composition and an ordered atomic arrangement. This definition (which is copied verbatim from my notes from Professor Jack Cheney's class in 1993) seems straightforward on its face, but when you take it apart, it turns out to be really, really different from the covalently bonded molecules we all learned about in high school chemistry.
...
My love for the Periodic Table hit a rough patch when I was a sophomore in college, when I took Mineralogy as a part of my geology major. I was learning a lot about how different kinds of atoms built up the rocks around me, but the Periodic Table never seemed to provide me with the information I needed. So it was a real pleasure a couple of months ago to follow a link Tweeted by AGU blogger Ryan Anderson, which took me to a Geochemist's Periodic Table. While it looks somewhat familiar, it represents a whole 'nother kind of information. This is not a new publication, but it was new to me.
(snipped giant image)
Bruce Railsback's An Earth Scientist's Periodic Table of the Elements and Their Ions shows physical properties and abundances of elements and their ions and isotopes of importance to Earth scientists. For more information, visit this page; this online annotated version is also interesting (mouse over for explanatory text in some areas).
The Periodic Table of Elements that is displayed in most chemistry classrooms typically shows information of interest to chemists (no surprise there). The investigation and experiment that led to the production of the Periodic Table involved studying the elements in their native state, or in solution, or in covalently bonded compounds with precise chemical formulae.
Geologists don't often deal with native elements or covalently bonded compounds. They deal with minerals, which are mostly not either one of those. A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic, homogeneous, crystalline solid with a definite composition and an ordered atomic arrangement. This definition (which is copied verbatim from my notes from Professor Jack Cheney's class in 1993) seems straightforward on its face, but when you take it apart, it turns out to be really, really different from the covalently bonded molecules we all learned about in high school chemistry.
...
This was new to me too, and quite interesting, so I thought I'd share it.