Newsletter of the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry Number 37, March 2002 Gunter Faure, Newsletter Editor The International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry is a Nonprofit Organization /CN 4Rm çO Last Call: Please renew your membership in thel IAGC today J Table of Contents News from the Association Message from the Editor 1 Renewal of Memberships in 2002 1 News from the Solar System Mission to Pluto 2 A Primer on Pluto 2 Successful Odyssey 2 Fate of the Pioneers 3 Working Groups of the IAGC in 2002 Working Group on the Geochemistry of the Earth’s Surface (GES-6) International Ingerson Lecture - Blair F. Jones, GES-6, Honolulu Working Group on Meteortics and Cosmochemistry Working Groups on Global Geochemical Baselines Working Group on Geochemistry and Disease Working Group on Applied Isotope Geochemistry (AIG-5) Medical Geochemistry of Arsenic Conhing Ivents . * . * . * . * . * . * . * * * . * . 6 New Books in Print . * . 8 Sixth International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry .... 9 Century-Old Diamond Hoax Re-examined by Henry Faul .. 10 cEfficers of the I.C * . * . * . * . * . * . 12 ouncillors . * * * . * . * . 13 4..dvertisenient, Rock ‘Vare . .• . * .14 1 News from the Association Message from the Editor The collection of dues for membership in the Until we meet again in October, I offer you my IAGC has been underway since late December and is best wishes and hope that your house will be safe from rapidly nearing completion. The closing date for the tigers. payment ofdues is May 1, 2002. Anyone who has not paid by that date will be assumed to have resigned Gunter Faure from the Association and will not receive the next Newsletter scheduled for October. Itake this opportunityto acknowledge the help of Renewal of Memberships in 2002 Attila Demeny of Hungary who has been collecting dues from our members in the Euro countries. We are The collection of dues for membership in the trying to eliminate the fees that banks charge for IAGC in 2002 is nearing completion as most of our issuing checks in US dollars or in any other foreign members have afready submitted their payment currency. Most of our members have found ways to either to Gunter Faure or to Attila Demeny (Euro pay in the currency of their country or by sending countries). paper currency through the mail. The Association has facilitated the payment This fall, the collection ofdues for 2003 will start of dues by accepting different currencies in amounts in September in order to avoid the delay in the that are equivalent to $15.00 US. Elsevier Science mailing of invoices for the subscription to APPLIED has already mailed invoices for renewal of GEOCHEMISTRY that as occurred this year. I am in subscriptions to APPLIED GEOCHEMISTRY at the contact with Elsevier about the problem with the special rate reserved for members who have paid invoices which were to be mailed in February. All of their dues to the IAGC. us are getting anxious, but we are all “in the same boat.” We will continue to accept late dues payments until May 1, 2002. Members who have I draw you attention to the next Council Meeting not paid their dues on this date will not receive which will take place during the Goldschmidt the October issue of the Newsletter and their Conference on August 18 in Davos, Switzerland. Our names will be deleted from the Membership President (Eric Galmiov) and Vice President (John Directory. Ludden) will attend and, by so doing, they will assume responsibility for steering our ship in the There will be no additional reminders. future. Please act now and avoid having to re-apply for membership later. I also draw your attention to information about our Working Groups and the meetings they are organizing. Plan to attend these meetings when they occur in your part of the world and participate by makmg presentations. 2 News from the Solar System Successful Odyssey Mission to Pluto When the proposed U.S. budget for 2002 excluded The spacecraft Odyssey reached Mars on funds for a mission to Pluto, hope for such a mission October 24, 2001, and went into orbit around it. By began to fade. Fortunately the Congress responded to doing so, Mars Odyssey succeeded where its the requests of many members of the Planetary predecessors Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Society and ofother individuals by adding 30 million Lander launched in 1998 had failed. In addition, Mars dollars to the 2002 budget for the design of a mission Observer which was launched in 1992 also failed to to Pluto and the K.uiper belt, This action does not yet go into orbit. Even Mars Global Surveyor had a close assure that the spacecraft will actually be built and call when one of its solar panels was damaged during launched before 2006 when the launch window aerobraking after orbital insertion. Fortunately, this closes, but it is a necessary first step toward spacecraft survived the ordeal and is still operating achievement of this goal. Thus encouraged, NASA reliably. has selected a proposal entitled: “New Horizons: Shedding Light on New Worlds” submitted by a team The Odyssey spacecraft carries three scientific led by Dr. S.A. Stem of the Southwest Research instruments. A thermal-infrared imager will measure Institute in Boulder, Colorado. If all goes well, the temperature differences of the Martian surface and spacecraft will be launched on time in 2006 and will detect the presence or absence of certain minerals by then encounter Pluto by 2020. So, stay tuned; there the spectrum ofthe observed infra-red radiation. The may be more news. gamma-ray spectrometer is capable of detecting 20 chemical elements in the rocks and soil on the surface A Primer on Pluto of Mars. The elements include hydrogen whose Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system and presence implies the presence of water or ice within the was discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh at one meter of the surface. A radiation detector named by Lowell Observatory in Arizona. It was recorded radiation levels during the trip to Mars and the time) in Venetia Bumey (who was 11 years old at will monitor radiation in the space around Mars to ofthis planet is recognition ofthe fact that the surface assess the potential danger to astronauts. cold and dark like the underworld of Roman mythology. After going into orbit around Mars in October of last year, the orbit of Odyssey has been adjusted by and its orbital Some of the cold facts about Pluto aerobraking in preparation for mapping. This phase characteristics are: of the project was to have ended in January of 2002. Average distance from the Sun: 39.53 AU Subsequently, Odyssey’s Mission will last more than lO6km one Martian year which is 687 Earth days or 1.88 where 1 AU=149.6x Earth years. Period ofrevolution 247.7 years Betts, B., 2001. Mars Odyssey enters Mars orbit. Period of rotation 6.39 days Planetary Report, 21(6):18-19. Orbital eccentricity 0.248 Diameter 2300km Annual Meeting of the Meteorical Society, July 22- 3 26, 2002. UCLA, DeNeve Plaza Conference Center, Density 2.03 g/cm Los Angeles, CA. Contact Paul H. Warren e-mail Mean surface temperature 37 Kelvins <[email protected]>, <http//www.lpi.usra.edu/ meetings/upcomingmeetings.h1> Surface material Methane ice (?) 3 Fate of the Pioneers Working Groups Nearly 30 years ago, on March 2 of 1972, the of the IAGC spacecraft Pioneer 10 was launched from Cape Canaveral and put on a trajectory towards Jupiter. It The International Association of arrived there on December 4, 1973, and continued Geochemistry is the only scientific society that outward bound after sending back the first close-up supports Working Groups which regularly organize pictures of the planet. Pioneer 10 passed the orbit of international symposia in different places of the Pluto in June of 1983 and entered uncharted regions world on topics of geochemistry and cosmo of space. Pioneer 11 headed for Saturn and, after a chemistry. These meetings bring together the active successful flyby, also left the Solar System. On researchers in each of the several subject areas and October 1, 1990, when it was about 30 Astronomical thereby help them to interact with their colleagues. Units (1 AU = 149.6 x 106 1cm) from the Sun, a In addition, these meetings regularly attract electrical component of Pioneer 11 failed thereby hundreds of persons who benefit from the oral and ending its ability to send messages to Earth. poster presentations, but who are not required to join the IAGC. In this way, the IAGC stimulates The mission of Pioneer 10 continued until research in geochemistry and cosmochemistry, and March 31, 1997 when it bad reached a distance of 67 at the same time, facilitates the dispersal of AU from the Sun. Although Pioneer 10 is no longer knowledge gained by the researchers. supported by a funded project, it has continued to emit a radio signal which can be detected by the Deep We strongly encourage our members to Space Network and by the Radiotelescope at Arecibo familiarize themselves with our Working Groups in Puerto Rico. At the present time, Pioneer 10 is 79 and with the subjects they represent. Please feel free AU from the Sun and is traveling with a velocity of to contact the chairpersons and ask for information 12.24 km/s toward the red star Aldebaran in the concerning future meetings or to make suggestions constellation Taurus. about matters that interest you. Our Working Groups are advancing the state of the art in their The Doppler shift ofthe radio signal emitted by subject areas.