Volume 48 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry represents the work of many authors whose research illustrates how the unique chemical and physical behavior of phosphate minerals permits a wide range of applications that encompasses phosphate mineralogy, petrology, biomineralization, geochronology, and materials science. While diverse, these fields are all linked structurally, crystal-chemically and geochemically. As geoscientists turn their attention to the intersection of the biological, geological, and material science realms, there is no group of compounds more germane than the phosphates.

Volume 53 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry covers the most important aspects of zircon-related research over the past twenty-years and highlight possible future research avenues.The chapters review the structure of zircon and other mineral (and synthetic) phases with the zircon structure; the minor and trace element compositions of igneous, metamorphic and hydrothermal zircons; the study of melt inclusions in zircon; experimental and natural studies of zircon saturation and the use of zircon saturation thermometry for natural rocks; cation diffusion and oxygen diffusion in zircon; the historical development of zircon geochronology from the mid-1950s to the present; ID-TIMS, SIMS and ICP-MS; the application of zircon chronology in constraining sediment provenance and the calibration ofthe geologic time-scale; other isotopic systematics; the spectroscopy of zircon, both crystalline and metamict and an atlas of internal textures of zircon.

Volume 48 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry represents the work of many authors whose research illustrates how the unique chemical and physical behavior of phosphate minerals permits a wide range of applications that encompasses phosphate mineralogy, petrology, biomineralization, geochronology, and materials science. While diverse, these fields are all linked structurally, crystal-chemically and geochemically. As geoscientists turn their attention to the intersection of the biological, geological, and material science realms, there is no group of compounds more germane than the phosphates.

Volume 53 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry covers the most important aspects of zircon-related research over the past twenty-years and highlight possible future research avenues.The chapters review the structure of zircon and other mineral (and synthetic) phases with the zircon structure; the minor and trace element compositions of igneous, metamorphic and hydrothermal zircons; the study of melt inclusions in zircon; experimental and natural studies of zircon saturation and the use of zircon saturation thermometry for natural rocks; cation diffusion and oxygen diffusion in zircon; the historical development of zircon geochronology from the mid-1950s to the present; ID-TIMS, SIMS and ICP-MS; the application of zircon chronology in constraining sediment provenance and the calibration ofthe geologic time-scale; other isotopic systematics; the spectroscopy of zircon, both crystalline and metamict and an atlas of internal textures of zircon.