Environmental Mineralogy
Interfacial processes at the mineral-fluid boundary
Co-Conveners
Helen King, MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Oliver Plümper, University of Bremen, Germany
Jun Kawano, Hokkaido University, Japan
Interfaces are the locations where materials meet. In mineralogical environments these materials often have different chemical and physical properties, yet rather than just being a passive margin, reactions and interactions across interfaces directly affect the reactivity of materials that are present. This is particularly true for aqueous-mineral interfaces. Such interactions are critical across many different environments in which minerals play a role, from extreme environments within the lower crust through to surface environments including soils and as part of environmental remediation strategies. For example, the processes occurring at these interfaces play a role in the growth of minerals regardless of whether they form at high or cryogenic temperatures. In addition, changes in the aqueous fluid properties at mineral surfaces can directly influence transport in the fluids when
they are confined by minerals.
In this session we encourage submission of studies related to mineral-aqueous interfaces including their characterisation and studies of mineral reactivity governed by interfaces. We welcome a broad range of perspectives on this topic from computational simulations through to experiments and natural examples of interfacial reactivity.
