Geochemistry has been used successfully on land for many years in the exploration for deposits of metals, nonmetals, and hydrocarbons. More recently it has been used for metal, non-metal, and hydrocarbon exploration in the marine environment. Marine exploration geochemistry includes exploration techniques based on the systematic measurement and evaluation of chemical properties of natural components in the ocean environment: rock, sediment, brine, water, gas, and life forms. Major (>1%), minor (<1% to >0.1%), and trace (<0.1%) amounts of an element or assemblage of elements and/or molecules and compounds are the quantities most often measured and assessed with the purpose of high lighting materials and areas or zones with greater than normal contents of the factor of factors being measured—i.e., the so-called geochemical anomalies. These anomalies may be related to metal or nonmetal mineralization or to hydrocarbon (petroleum and/or natural gas) accumulation at or...
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Siegel, F.R. (1988). Marine exploration geochemistry . In: General Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30844-X_73
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30844-X_73
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