Water-Rock Interaction

The chemical interaction of water and rock is one of the most fascinating an d multifaceted process in geology. The composition of surface water and groundwater is largely controlled by the reaction of water with rocks and minerals. At elevated temperature, hydrothermal features, hydrothermal 0 re deposits and geothermal fields are associated with chemical effects of water-rock interaction. Surface outcrops of rocks from deeper levels in the crust, including exposures of lower crustal and mantle rocks, often display structures that formed by interaction of the rocks with a supercritical aqueous fluid at very high pT conditions. Understanding water-rock interaction is also of great importance to applied geology and geochemistry, particularly in areas such as geothermal energy, nuclear waste repositories and applied hydrogeology. The extremely wide-ranging research efforts on the universal water-rock interaction process is reflected in the wide diversity of themes presented at the regular International Symposia on Water-Rock Interaction (WRI). Because of the large and widespread interest in water-rock interaction, the European Union of Geosciences organized a special symposium on "water-rock interaction" at EUGI0, the biannual meeting in Strasbourg 1999 convened by the editors of this volume. In contrast to the regular WRI symposia addressed to the specialists, the EUG 10 "water-rock interaction" symposium brought the subject to a general platform This very successful symposium showed the way to the future of water-rock reaction research.

Groundwater field and experimental studies.- Groundwater Evolution in an Arid Coastal Region of the Sultanate of Oman based on Geochemical and Isotopic Tracers.- A combined isotopic tool box for the investigation of water-rock interaction: An overview of Sr, B, O, H isotopes and U-series in deep groundwaters from the Vienne granitoid (France).- Water-rock reaction experiments with Black Forest gneiss and granite.- The distribution of rare earth elements and yttrium in water-rock interactions: field observations and experiments.- Hydrothermal and volcanic settings.- A case study of gas-water-rock interaction in a volcanic aquifer: the south-western flank of Mt. Etna (Sicily).- Modelling chemical brine-rock interaction in geothermal reservoirs.- Mineral deposits.- Water-rock reactions in a barite-fluorite underground mine, Black Forest (Germany).- Extensional Veins and Pb-Zn Mineralisation in basement rocks: The role of penetration of formation brines.- Experimental studies.- Interaction of polysilicic and monosilicic acid with mineral surfaces.