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Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the entire Solar System and has made important contributions to the understanding of a number of processes including mantle convection, the formation of planets and the origins of granite and basalt.

History
The term geochemistry was first used by the Swiss-German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838. In his paper, Schönbein predicted the birth of a new field of study, stating: "'In a word, a comparative geochemistry ought to be launched, before geochemistry can become geology, and before the mystery of the genesis of our planets and their inorganic matter may be revealed.'" The field began to be realised a short time after Schönbein's work, but his term - 'geochemistry' - was initially used neither by geologists nor chemists and there was much debate over which of the two sciences should be the dominant partner. There was little collaboration between geologists and chemists and the field of geochemistry remained small and unrecognised. In the late 19th Century a Swiss man by the name of Victor Goldschmidt was born, he later became to be known as the father of geochemistry. His paper, Geochemische Verteilungsgesetze der Elemente, on the distribution of elements in nature has been referred to as the start of geochemistry. During the early 20th Century, a number of geochemists produced work that began to popularise the field, including Frank Wigglesworth Clarke who had begun to investigate the abundances of various elements within the Earth and how the quantities were related to atomic weight. The composition of meteorites and their differences to terrestrial rocks was being investigated as early as 1850 and in 1901, Oliver C. Farrington hypothesised although there were differences, that the relative abundances should still be the same. This was the beginnings of the field of cosmochemistry and has contributed much of what we know about the formation of the Earth and the Solar System.

Basic Geochemistry of Elements
The earth and its rocks are formed from a series of different minerals and these minerals all have a different chemical composition, that gives them all unique properties. The study of geochemistry is that of how the principles of chemistry, in natural environments, create the geological structures that are visible to us earth today. To truly understand the study of geochemistry one must understand the general properties of the elements as well as geological conditions of the earth.

origins of elements and cosmochemistry
The origins of geochemistry can be traced all the way back to The Big Bang. As the universe began billions of years ago the cosmos was made of nothing but Hydrogen and Helium these elements, however essential, are not major components of minerals in the geochemical world. After The Big Bang the Matter in the universe began to condense into comets, planets, and stars. In theses stars is where the remaining elements needed to create the structures of earth were born. Stars produce their energy through Nuclear fusion, which is the process by which the nucleus of two opposing atoms are forced together to form a new heavier atom. Every element was formed this way, and was proven by referencing the study of abundences of elements found in the solar system, since it would take more steps of fusion larger elements would take longer to form, which is what Anders and Ebihara discovered in their paper Solar-system abundances of the elements.

abundance of elements
The chemical composition of the earth is very different of of that of the solar system, which is composed of mainly hydrogen and helium. The earths crust is largely oxygen followed by silicon. These elements and their abundance within the earth dictate the composition of the minerals that they form.

isotope geochemistry
Isotope geochemistry is the study of the natural abundances of different Isotopes on the earth. The information that is gathered through mass spectrometry is used to determine the age of formations around the earth. More about this science division of geochemistry can read on the isotope geochemistry page.