Chemical Geology 198 (2003) 139 – 140
www.elsevier.com/locate/chemgeo
Book review
Environmental Applications of Geochemical
Modeling
Chen Zhu and Greg Anderson—Cambridge
University Press
My copy of ‘Environmental Applications of Geo-
chemical Modeling’ by Chen Zhu and Greg Anderson
arrived just before Stacey, Emily (our two-year-old),
and I were off to Austin to visit family for the
Christmas holiday. So, I tossed it into the bag along
with several of Emily’s books to read during the trip.
While in Austin, between eating massive quantities of
steaks and watching football on television, I spent my
time reading and rereading two books: ‘Environmental
Applications of Geochemical Modeling’ and ‘Harry
the Dirty Dog’ by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy
Grahm.
While reading these books, I noted several interest-
ing similarities and contrasts. Both books explore the
fate and consequences of environmental pollution. In
‘Harry the Dirty Dog’, first published in 1956, Harry
plays in the train yard and gets dirty; he plays in a coal
mine and gets even dirtier. He gets so dirty he is
changed from a white dog with black spots to a black
dog with white spots. A solution is found to resolve
some of these consequences of environmental pollu-
tion; Harry is given a bath. I suspect this summed up
the state of the art on how to solve environmental
problems in 1956.
Chen and Anderson’s new book ‘Environmental
Applications of Geochemical Modeling’ provides
insights into many of the advances that have arrived
since ‘Harry the Dirty Dog’ was first published.
Considering the vast number of advances, there is
no doubt that a new guidebook to geochemical
modeling is needed. Part of this need is described
by Chen and Anderson in their Introduction. They
present the results of a search performed on the US
Environmental Protection Agency’s Records of Deci-
doi:10.1016/S0009-2541(02)00382-0
sion CD-ROM. Of the total number of records men-
tioning models of various kinds, 533 mention only
groundwater flow models, 93 mention transport mod-
els, but only 41 mention geochemical models. A
similar survey of the September 2000 Superfund
Public Information CD-ROM found only 6 of 1206
records mentioning geochemical modeling. I suspect
that many geochemists find this result a bit shocking.
For some reason, perhaps due to the lack of ade-
quately trained scientists, geochemical modeling has
lagged dramatically transport and flow modeling in
environmental studies. With luck, the appearance of
this book, which in my opinion is long overdue, will
begin to correct this deficiency.
This book follows a direct and logical path starting
with some simple modeling basics and thermodynamic
background, passing through aqueous speciation, min-
eral solubility and surface adsorption modeling, and
winding up with more complex reaction path and
coupled reactive path modeling. The book is written
in a style that makes it approachable to the enlightened
nonexpert, and even contains a scattering of personal
advice from the authors, as if they were in fact
lecturing to the reader. For example, on p. 106, one
finds the advice, ‘Modeling work is not complete until
it is effectively presented either orally or in a report.
Often managers or regulators, who review the geo-
chemical modeling work are not experts on the subject.
Clear presentation is the key’.
Much of ‘Environmental Applications of Geo-
chemical Modeling’ reports on how Chen Zhu has
used various computational tools to provide insight
into geochemical problems. As such, it provides an
answer to that question often asked in my office by
first year graduate students: ‘What the f**k is that
modeling s**t all about, anyway?’ The emphasis in
this book is on how to apply several readily available
computer codes to model the geochemical evolution
of experimental and natural systems. The main com-
140 Book review
puter codes used and explained in this book are
PHREEQC and MINTEQA2, both of which are
available free of charge from the addresses and/or
websites listed in the book. Some other computer
codes: EQ3/6, NETPATH, SUPCRT92, EQBRM,
SOLMINEQ.88, SOLVEQ, CHILLER, MINEQL+,
and The Geochemists Workbench are introduced,
but not extensively described or used. This book
provides a survey of these tools and what they can
do, rather than a users guide to the codes. Users
guides are generally available for each of these codes,
though quite honestly, many of them are challenging
to follow.
A point that struck me about this book is that it is
aimed at how to apply geochemical modeling codes,
but NOT at how they actually work. Throughout the
book, one finds statements like:
Geochemical models have been extensively review-
ed in the literature. Here, we describe them only
briefly. More detailed descriptions of models can be
found in the above-mentioned reviews, the manuals
for the geochemical modeling codes . . . (p. 24).
The mathematical formulation of equilibrium
speciation– solubility models and the numerical
methods to solve algebraic equations are described
elsewhere, and we shall not repeat them here (p.
76).
We will say very little about the numerical methods
these programs use (p. 79).
The mathematical foundations are not difficult, but
we omit these aspects here, and try instead to
convey a sense of what modeling achieves and
does not achieve (p. 159).
We omit the mathematical development here.
Serious modelers should read . . . (p. 183).
The reader is frequently directed to other sources to
discover the details of how these modeling calcula-
tions actually work. The degree to which this is a
benefit or a drawback to this book depends on the
reader. I suspect that for many, this is a benefit. Many
users of computer modeling codes just want to know
how to run the codes and get on with their lives. This
is likely a big advantage for the casual user and for
teaching computer applications in aqueous geochem-
istry, as large sets of complex equations tend to strike
fear among Earth Scientists. For the few of us that like
knowing what is inside the black box, however, this
superficial treatment of the fundamentals of geochem-
ical modeling may prove frustrating.
A strong point of this book is that it is filled with
worked examples including PHREEQC, EQ3/6 and
REACT input files/scripts. I always find it useful,
when using new computer codes, to have several
worked examples available to me to aid in learning
how the code work. Most of these worked examples
come directly from Chen Zhu’s research. Some exam-
ples, notably the geochemical evolution of fluids and
geochemical transport at the Bear Creek Uranium Mill
Tailings Impoundment, are used throughout the book
to illustrate the various aspects of Geochemical Mod-
eling, ranging from simple speciation calculations to
reaction transport models.
One should be warned, however, that this book will
be most useful over the next few years. Computer
codes tend to evolve quickly, with new geochemical
modeling codes or revised versions of existing codes
arriving each year. As such, I fear that 15 years from
now, ‘Environmental Applications of Geochemical
Modeling’ will begin to look as naive as ‘Harry the
Dirty Dog’ looks today.
One major difference between these two books is
their relative price. The copy of ‘Harry the Dirty Dog’
that I read claimed its original price was US$15.00,
which I consider very steep for 32 pages of illustrated
text. Amazon sells it for US$11.17. Either way you
look at it, its over US$0.30 a page. I suppose if it were
a required undergraduate text, most students would
just Xerox it cover to cover. In contrast, ‘Environ-
mental Applications of Geochemical Modeling’ is a
downright bargain. According to the Cambridge Uni-
versity Press webpage, the 289-page soft cover edition
costs only US$40, which I suspect will be lower than
many of our bar tabs at the upcoming Goldschmidt
meeting in Davos. Considering its value and time-
liness, I have little doubt this book will find its way
onto most of our bookshelves very soon.
Eric H. Oelkers
Laboratoire de Géochimie, Université Paul Sabatier,
CNRS UMR 5563, 38 rue des Trente-Six Ponts,
31400 Toulouse, France
E-mail address: oelkers@lmtg.ups-tlse.fr