Neutron activation analysis in the geosciences: Lost territory, or New Deal?

NAA was the first technique to facilitate extensive studies of trace elements in the geosphere. Since the first applications around 1950 a rapid development was observed during the following years due to improvements in radiochemistry, detectors, and electronics, which reached a maximum in the early 1970s with the studies of lunar rocks. Since then the use of NAA in the geosciences has gradually lost momentum, not only due to the fact that new analytical techniques have emerged but also because some of the knowledge acquired during the “golden years” may appear to have been forgotten. In the present paper some important milestones in geochemical analyses by NAA are reviewed, recent trends are discussed, and some priorities for future work are suggested. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.