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"Environmental Isotopes in Hydrogeology" by Ian Clark and Peter Fritz
Reviewed by Carol Kendall, U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, 345 Middlefield Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025.
The field of isotope hydrology/biogeochemistry is rapidly expanding, with several new books available including Mazor's Chemical and Isotopic Groundwater Hydrology: The Applied Approach (1997, Marcel Dekker), Griffiths' (ed.) Stable Isotopes: Integration of Biological, Ecological and Geochemical Processes (1998, Bios Scientific), and others being prepared. However, this and Mazor (1997) are the only textbooks, and are aimed at different audiences: classes in isotope hydrogeology and field methods, respectively.
Environmental Isotopes in Hydrogeology evolved in large part from the teaching notes that Ian Clark developed at the University of Ottawa, and reflects the authors' interests in arid region hydrology and deep ground water systems. The title accurately describes the focus of the book, which is isotope hydrogeology. The book is organized into 10 chapters that cover the fundamentals, the hydrologic cycle, dating methods, geochemical evolution of waters, contaminants, water-rock interaction, and field methods. The book explores a broad range of international case studies and examples, but there is a natural bias towards the areas where the authors have done most of their research: Canada, Western Europe, and Oman; some comparable studies in the U.S....