An Unlikely Connection: Geochemistry and Nuclear Structure

Although geochemistry belongs to the earth sciences, historically it has interacted importantly with the physical sciences, in particular with astrophysics and nuclear physics. These interactions, which in traditional historiography have received little notice from either historians of physics or historians of geology, are the subjects of the present paper, which focuses on the period between 1915 and 1950. During the 1920s, geochemists established empirical regularities in the abundance data of the elements in rocks and meteorites, and from these they suggested that an improved knowledge of the atomic nucleus could be obtained. More significantly, geochemists supplied astrophysicists, cosmologists and nuclear physicists with important data that could not be obtained otherwise. The link between geochemistry and basic, nuclear physics is a historical reality. The paper explores parts of this link.