GeOCHemISTea

For this episode we had a squiz at: "Mineral Geochemistry Vectoring: Uncovering Northwest Queensland’s Hidden Potential" (Steadman et al., 2021), "Improving geological logging of drill holes using geochemical data and data analytics for mineral exploration in the Gawler Ranges, South Australia" (Hill et al., 2021), and the tutorials on the Mineral Mapping website. 

There's a role for classical geochemistry (bivariate plots, probability plots, etc.) to play, but the future is moving towards a data science approach to geochemical data. Come listen to Mike's take on where geochemistry in industry is heading and where it still needs to shift. 

Excited for Mike's upcoming episode on bridging the gap between classical geochemistry and geochemistry in data science? Enjoy a teaser on how our email chain evolved during the development of this episode! 

For this episode we read: "A User's Guide to Basalt Discrimination Diagrams" by Pearce (1996).

Surely you have seen a geochemical diagram before... Winchester and Floyd (1977) for the classification of volcanic rocks or even Pearce's 1996 diagram to classify basalts. Have you combed the literature to find the most fit-for-purpose diagram for your own rock samples? Look no further! In this discussion with Pim van Geffen we talk about how to use the principles outlined in this book chapter to create your own diagrams. 

These questions were meant to be a summary at the end of Episode 5 to tie everything together, instead there is so much great information that we decided to give this bonus content to you as a preview of what is to come in Thursday's episode! 

Getting excited for Pim's upcoming episode on building your own geochemistry classification diagram? Here's a short episode that delves into the world of analytical digests and scratches the surface of analytical finishes.

For this episode we read: "Rapid crystallization of precious-metal-mineralized layers in mafic magmatic systems" (Hepworth et al., 2020).

What does a computational geochemist and igneous petrologist do? Apparently, they think a lot on crystal mushes and bifurcation. Seeing mafic magmatic PGE and Cr systems from an igneous petrology perspective has its benefits and there's something in this episode for everyone interested in these systems. Separately, we also asked about his views on predatory scientific journals and their implications for geoscientists and researchers.

"...and the moment you run into this will tell you a lot about how you feel as a person, to learn something you might have been wrong about." -Tom Carmichael 

Tom is the Chief Data Scientist at Datarock and we spent a long time at the beginning of this episode talking about the fields of mathematical and computational geology, particularly from the perspective of someone at the university level that is interested in getting into these fields. The rest of the show is about Tom losing his membership to the AGU and a lot of Q&A on the concept of spatial autocorrelation - and importantly how it applies to geochemical data. 

For this episode we read: Importance of spatial predictor variable selection in machine learning applications - Moving from data reproduction to spatial prediction by Meyer et al., 2019.

For this episode we read: "Geochemical mapping: technique or art" (Reinmann, 2005).

When preparing this episode, German immediately gravitated to the concept that all geoscientists can be geochemists AND that all geochemists should be good geoscientists. In this episode we explore how the basic principles of survey design lead to the generation of meaningful geochemical summary outputs, e.g., maps, that can help exploration teams make decisions.  

For this episode we read: "The Oil-Bearing, Carlin-Type Gold Deposits of Yankee Basin, Alligator Ridge District, Nevada" (Hulen & Collister, 1999). 

Our chat ranges from lithogeochemistry to isotopes to pathfinder elements in the Carlin (Nevada) with Simon Griffiths. More interesting, let's see his path from a young Welsh structural geologist to the proprietor and principal consultant of 3PXS, a UK-based economic geology and geochemistry consulting firm.