Customer Reviews

Environmental Isotopes in Hydrogeology

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This is one of the best textbooks I have ever read. The book regards the light, stable isotopes so called in hydrogeology - "environmental isotopes". The authors present the occurrence of the environmental isotopes, physical and chemical processes affecting the variations of isotopic composition of different types of waters in understandable, logical manner - starting from the hydrological cycle, from evaporation and water vapor through precipitation and fresh water to groundwaters, mixtures and brines. I think that Fritz's and Clark's book is very usefull especially for those starting the research with the isotopes in waters because such complex processes like the isotope fractionation and the mechanisms of isotope exchange are explained clearly and effectively. Although the big part of the book, what is also important to me, regards the interpretation of isotopic data, possibilities of using them to the evaluation of a water quality, identifying and dating both the modern and the old groundwaters. I refere this book either for those starting the work with stable isotopes in waters or for those having many years practice in that field. In my opinion it is not only the very good textbook but also the very well organized compendium of useful scientific information.

I read this book for a Stable Isotope Geochemistry class as an undergraduate at UC-Davis and found it moderately understandable. My background is in ecology and as a grad student now I am using stable isotopes to answer ecological questions. I still refer to this text and even compare some of my values to values used in the text. It is well-indexed and easy to find specific subjects. Though the writing is fairly dry, there are plenty of graphs and diagrams that are very informative and display the trends and concepts satisfactorily. I wonder though if some of the data they use is a outdated. They often cite work from 1970's and earlier and I don't know if there might have been some changes in methodology and increases in applications. This book is heavily biased on freshwater systems and I would like to see a new edition with a chapter on marine applications/problems/things to consider etc. All in all I would recommend it to advanced undergraduates and higher in geology, geography, ecology, environmental sciences and those wishing to learn about isotope fractionation and its uses in science generally.