Henry Elderfield

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Henry Elderfield (25 April 1943 – 19 April 2016), was Professor of Ocean Chemistry and Palaeochemistry at the Godwin Laboratory in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He made his name in ocean chemistry and palaeochemistry, using trace metals and isotopes in biogenic carbonate as palaeochemical tracers, and studying the chemistry of modern and ancient oceans - especially those of the glacial epoch and the Cenozoic.

Early life and education Elderfield was born in Lazenby, North Yorkshire; a twin brother to John Elderfield. His father had been reported 'missing in action', shortly before he was born. Elderfield received his education from Sir William Turner's Grammar School and Eston Grammar School.

He also worked on iodine speciation in seawater and porewaters, the separation of cerium from other rare earth elements in a classic example of redox behaviour; he has developed a precise mass spectrometric analysis method – and made the first-ever measurements of oceanic profiles for – 10 rare earth elements. The rare earths are now widely used as tracers in sedimentary geochemistry and palaeoceanography.

Later research Elderfield's later research focused on ocean chemistry and paleochemistry, and his results have had a far-reaching impact on the academic geochemistry discipline. He contributed significantly to marine chemistry, most notably the fate of metals in hydrothermal processes, the formation of manganese nodules, and the biogeochemical cycles of elements including iodine and strontium.

His latter interests included defining chemical proxies from biogenic carbonates and using them to understand the ancient ocean. He pioneered the development of foraminiferal magnesium thermometry, which has become accepted for the estimation of past ocean temperatures. The rare-earth elements in rivers, estuaries, and coastal seas and their significance to the composition of ocean waters Application of the Cerium anomaly as a palaeoredox indicator: the ground rules