Environmental research in earth sciences is focused on the geosphere,
i.e. (1) waters and sediments of rivers, lakes and oceans, and (2) soils
and underlying shallow rock formations,both water-unsaturated and
-saturated. The subsurface is studied down to greater depths at sites
where waste repositories or tunnels are planned and mining activities
exist. In recent years, earth scientists have become more and more
involved in pollution problems related to their classical field of
interest, e.g. groundwater, ore deposits, or petroleum and non-metal
natural deposits (gravel, clay, cement precursors). Major pollutants
include chemical substances, radioactive isotopes and microorganisms.
Mechanisms which govern the transport of pollutants are of physical,
chemical (dissolution, precipitation, adsorption), or microbiological
(transformation) nature. Land-use planning must reflect a sustainable
development and sound scientific criteria. Today's environmental
pollution requires working teams with an interdisciplinary background in
earth sciences, hydrology, chemistry, biology, physics as well as
engineering. This symposium brought together for the first time in
Switzerland earth and soil scientists, physicists and chemists, to
present and discuss environmental issues concerning the geosphere.