2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Science Undergraduate major in Earth and Planetary Sciences
Geochemistry A
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Instructor(s)
- Tetsuya Yokoyama / Kenta Ueki
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 7-8 Tue / 7-8 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- EPS.B202
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Geochemistry is a field of study that uses "chemistry" to explore the formation and evolution of the Solar System, the structure and evolution of materials in the Earth's interior, and the origin and evolution of the Earth's surface environment including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and life. In the first half of this lecture (Class 1 to 7), the structure and properties of atom, which is the smallest unit of matter, will be introduced, and the diversity of terrestrial materials created by the different properties of each element will be explained. The second half of the lecture (Class 8 to 14) focuses on thermodynamics, an important physical and chemical law governing the formation of terrestrial and planetary materials, and lectures on its basic concepts, free energy, and so on. In this way, this course aims to approach terrestrial and planetary materials from both microscopic (atomic) and macroscopic (thermodynamic) perspectives.
Course description and aims
The course aims to provide students with the basic knowledge of geochemistry necessary for studying Earth and Planetary Science. In the first half of the course, students will learn the structure of atoms, the smallest unit of all matter, and the properties of the elements that result from the structure of atoms. In the second half of the course, students will learn the first and second laws governing thermodynamics, various thermodynamic functions, free energy and phase equilibrium.
Keywords
Atoms, Molecules, Nature of elements, Elemental abundances, Equation of state, first and second laws of thermodynamics, free energy, phase equilibrium
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Before coming to class, students should read the course schedule and prepare for the topics with handouts and references.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Structure of nuclei | Understanding of elements, atoms, and atomic mass |
| Class 2 | Wave–particle duality | Understanding of black-body radiation and photoelectric effect |
| Class 3 | Schrödinger equation | Derive Schrödinger equation for hydrogenic atom |
| Class 4 | Atomic orbital, electron configuration of multielectron atoms and periodic table | Understanding of electronic structure of atoms and the principle of the periodic table |
| Class 5 | Atomic radius and ionization energy | Understanding of the electron configuration and the size of atoms |
| Class 6 | Structure of molecules, hybrid orbital | Understanding of valence-bond theory and molecular orbital theory, sigma-bond, pi-bond, and sp3, sp2, and sp hybrid orbitals |
| Class 7 | Crystals | Understanding of Bravais lattices |
| Class 8 | Basic Concepts of thermodynamics | Understanding of the significance of thermodynamics and its basic concepts |
| Class 9 | Thermodynamic equilibrium and state quantities | Understanding of the concepts of equilibrium, intensive variables, and intensive variables in thermodynamics, as well as state quantities and an equation of state |
| Class 10 | Thermodynamic work 1: the first law of thermodynamics | Understanding of the concept of thermodynamic work and the first law of thermodynamics |
| Class 11 | Thermodynamic work 2: the second law of thermodynamics | Understanding of the second law of thermodynamics and the concept of the heat engine |
| Class 12 | Entropy | Understanding of entropy |
| Class 13 | Free energy | Understanding of the thermodynamic free energy including Gibbs and Helmholtz free energies, and their relationship to entropy |
| Class 14 | Free energy and phase equilibrium | Understanding of the relationship between the free energy and thermodynamic equilibrium, as well as phase equilibrium and the phase rule |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Handouts will be provided via T2SCHOLA during the class
Reference books, course materials, etc.
P.W. Atkins "Atkins' Physical chemistry 10th edition" Oxford University Press
F.A. Cotton, G. Wilkinson, P.L. Gaus, "Basic Inorganic chemistry, 3rd edition" Wiley
Thermodynamics Hodeo Yoshida Kyoritsu Shuppan (In Japanese)
Thermodynamics Satoru J MIyake, Shokabo (In Japanese)
Herbert B. Callen, Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics, John Wiley and Sons
Evaluation methods and criteria
Students will be assessed on their understanding of basic geochemistry (atoms, elements, thermodynamics) that are required for studying earth and planetary sciences. Students' course scores are based on final exam (100%).
Related courses
- EPS.B211 ： Geochemistry B
- EPS.A201 ： Introduction to Material Sciences of Earth and Planet
- CHM.B334 ： Geochemistry
- EPS.A331 ： Earth Materials
Prerequisites
Due to overlap in content, this course is not open to students who have already taken EPS.B202 (Thermodynamics (EPS course) and EPS.B211 Inorganic Chemistry (EPS course) in 2023 or before.