Geological, geoenvironmental, and resource studies were completed to study a world-class phosphate ore in the Western US Phosphate Field. This integrated, multi-agency, multidisciplinary research emphasized: (1) Geological and geochemical baseline characterization of the deposit and associated rocks, (2) Delineation, assessment, and spatial analysis of phosphate resources and lands disturbed by mining, (3) Contaminant residence, reaction pathways, and environmental fate associated with the occurrence, development, and use of phosphate rock, and (4) Depositional origin and evolution of the Phosphoria Formation and deposit and geoenvironmental modeling.

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.