Charles Gowing

• PhD
• British Geological Survey

Following a full assessment of the Geo PT proficiency testing scheme against the recommendations in ISO Guide 35:2017 for the use of proficiency testing in the certification of reference materials, this paper presents the first application of the Geo PT certification protocol in the characterisation of a new geochemical CRM, IAG GMN‐1, Meissen Gran...

Chronologies generated from core profiles to apply dates to environmental changes commonly use the measurement of the activity of radionuclides deposited and stratified with physical environmental material. The most commonly reported nuclide to define chronologies covering the last 150 years is Pb-210, for which accepted data processing methodologi...

The geochemistry of river sediments is routinely used to obtain information about geologic and environmental processes occurring upstream. For example, downstream samples are used to constrain chemical weathering and physical erosion rates upstream, as well as the locations of mineral deposits or contaminant sources. Previous work has shown that, b...

The elemental composition of sediments in rivers is the product of physical and chemical erosion of rocks, which is then transported across drainage networks. A corollary is that fluvial sedimentary geochemistry can be used to understand geologic, climatic, and geomorphic processes. Here, we predict elemental compositions of river sediments using d...

Understanding the risks of a developing unconventional hydrocarbons industry, including shale gas, to the chemical quality of surface water and groundwater involves firstly establishing baseline compositions against which any future changes can be assessed. Contaminants of geogenic origin are of particular interest and radon has been identified as...

River islands (Ait or Eyot) within the inner tidal Thames serve as unique recorders of current and historical estuarine chemical pollution. Sediment cores from Chiswick Ait were assessed for contamination using Microtox® solid phase bioassay, stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N), heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Microtox® classified these...

This atlas is a milestone publication representing 45 years of work to characterise the chemical quality of the United Kingdom surface environment. Maps and information documenting the concentrations of 18 chemical elements analysed in approximately 111,000 stream sediment samples collected across the UK are presented for the first time. Results re...

p>The Western Irish Sea preserves an exceptionally thick (ca. 40 m) Holocene succession that is ideally suited to understanding the pattern of palaeostratification and water mass productivity changes in the region, and their relationship with sea level, sedimentation, and biota. Additionally, the presence of shallow-buried methane provides an oppor...

Re‐issuing the same test material, its true identity unknown to participants, in two rounds of the GeoPT proficiency testing programme 18 years apart has demonstrated remarkable similarity, and therefore stability, of consensus values independently estimated for over fifty measurands in each round. A comparison of the two datasets, GeoPT5 (AMH‐1) i...

Awarded the prize for "Best Scientific Poster" at the 36th Annual CoGER UK conference.

The Lower Mississippian (Tournaisian) Ballagan Formation in SE Scotland yields tetrapod fossils that provide fresh insights into the critical period when these animals first moved onto land. The key to understanding the palaeoenvironments where they lived is a detailed analysis of the sedimentary architecture of this formation, one of the thickest...

Serpentine minerals serve as an Mg donor in carbon capture and storage by mineralisation (CCSM). The acid-treatment of nine comprehensively-examined serpentine polymorphs and polytypes, and the subsequent microanalysis of their post-test residues highlighted several aspects of great importance to the choice of the optimal feed material for CCSM. Co...

Traditionally, potash mineral deposits have been characterized using downhole geophysical logging in tandem with geochemical analysis of core samples to establish the critical potassium (% K2O) content. These techniques have been employed in a recent exploration study of the Permian evaporite succession of North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, but the c...

BGS 102, a guidance material for bioaccessible arsenic (As) and lead (Pb), was produced during validation of the in vitro Unified Bioaccessibility Method (UBM). This paper reports a compilation of reproducible bioaccessible guidance values for fifty-five additional elements in BGS 102, providing guidance for analysts to broaden the scope of UBM ana...

The study used 276 urban soils and 447 rural soils collected from in and around the UK town of Northampton and focussed on the fractionation of Pb. The Pb fractionation obtained from total element data was compared to the fractionation of Pb in a subset of 10 urban soils obtained using a sequential extraction method. The fractionation of the Pb fro...

IntroductionField sample preservationPhysical sample preparationDetermination of bulk propertiesAnalytical sample preparationInstrumental analysis for inorganic analytesApplication of quality assuranceHealth and safety issuesReferences

Two chromitite samples from the Isles of Shetland (North Scotland) have been processed, each in 200 kg quantities, as reference samples for the determination of gold and the platinum-group elements (PGE). One of these samples, Chromitite CHR-Pt+ is enriched in the PGE and the other, Chromitite CHR-Bkg has much lower concentrations. A detailed asses...

F62 An Improved Analytical Methodology Using Synthetic Standards, Fused Beads and X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry for Cements and Associated Materials - Volume 20 Issue 2 - M.N. Ingham, N.D. Eatherington, C.J.B. Gowing

Results are described for optimizing the rapid determination of precious metals in geological samples (principally of ophiolitic origin, including chromitites) using an aqua regia[HCl + HNO3(3 + 1)] leach followed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Little improvement in extraction efficiency is afforded by aqua regia attack for longer...