Question

Why do we generally normalize to chondrite when we compare different soil?

Answer 1

I think you can do it yourself and find out the errors. It's very simple. What you have to do is: divide all your REE data (each element data) by the chondrite values for the particular element, e.g. divide the value of La (your data) by La (chondrite value)..and ..so..and ..so. For chondrite REE values you can follow different authors such as Taylor and McLennan or Sun and McDonough etc. Values of Taylor and McLennan (1985) are:

La 0.367

Ce 0.957

Pr 0.137

Nd 0.711

Sm 0.231

Eu 0.087

Gd 0.306

Tb 0.058

Dy 0.381

Ho 0.085

Er 0.249

Tm 0.036

Yb 0.248

Lu 0.038

So simply divide your each element value by the chondrite value of the same element as mentioned above. Now your data is ready to plot.

Eu/Eu* = 2*Eu(CN)/(Sm+Gd)CN (multiply your chondrite normalize Eu value by 2 and divide it by summation of chondrite normalized values of Sm and Gd)....and your are done!!!!

Enjoy normalizing!!!!

Answer 2

Depends what you are looking for! PAAS and NASC can give you some idea how different your coal samples are from an "average" shales (however, there is no average shale!) - typical sedimentary stuff. Do you need to compare coals from different localities, regions, environments or maturities, it all depends..