The Geochemistry of Natural Waters: Surface and Groundwater Environments.
Third Edition. 1997.
By James I. Drever
Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ
ISBN 0-13-272790-0
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Hydrologic Cycle
2. Chemical Background
3. The Carbonate System and pH Control
4. Clay Minerals and Cation Exchange
5. Adsorption
6. Organic Compounds in Natural Waters
7. Redox Equilibria
8. Redox Conditions in Natural Waters
9. Heavy Metals and Metalloids
10. Stability Relationships and Silicate Equilibria
11. Kinetics
12. Weathering and Water Chemistry
13. Acid Water
14. Isotopes
15. Evaporation and Saline Waters
16. Transport and Reaction Modeling
Drever's The Geochemistry of Natural Waters is intended for advanced
undergraduate and beginning graduate classes. We used it as the required text
in a senior level chemistry elective course called "Chemistry of Aqueous
Systems" that was team taught. The students were mostly seniors in chemistry
and chemical engineering.
The topics covered are fairly comprehensive as can be seen by the Table of
Contents. However, complexation is not covered in a separate chapter but
appears in brief sections in several chapters. Complex formation appears for the
first time in Chapter 2 Chemical Background where the discussion consists of
two and a half pages. The concept is mentioned again in Chapter 6 Organic
Compounds in Natural Waters but consists of a single paragraph. Speciation, a
critical concept in the chemistry of natural waters, is discussed in Chapter 9
Heavy Metals and Metalloids in about one page. This critical topic does not
receive enough attention. Kinetics also receives very little explanation although
Chapter 11 is titled Kinetics. A first order rate expression is given but zero-order
and second-order expressions are mentioned only in passing. The questions at
the end of the chapter ask the students to derive these expressions. The concept
of pseudo-first order rate constants is not included.
The two chapters devoted to redox reactions are well done. Chapter 7 Redox
Equilibria does a good job of explaining pe-pH diagrams with step by step
construction of several diagrams for the iron system. Drever uses the pe concept
rather than Eh but clearly establishes the relationship between the two
approaches. I found the one question at the end of the chapter on constructing a
pe-pH diagram too difficult for the students because it required six different
manganese phases be considered. I modified the question and asked the
students to construct a diagram that only considered three phases (Mn 2+,
Mn(OH)2, and MnCO3). Chapter 8 Redox Conditions in Natural Waters is a good
basic treatment of the role of biogeochemistry in regulation of natural redox
conditions. Data from sediment cores illustrated with several figures nicely
support the concepts presented. There is only one problem with three parts
presented at the end of this chapter.
Most chapters have only a handful of questions of which a sub-set can be
considered quantitative. Drever provides some information about computer
models available for geochemical calculations but there are a limited number of
examples presented in the text.
Cindy M. Lee
Clemson University