ABSTRACT
According to Engels, matter has five forms of motion: mechanical, physical, chemical, biological, and social. All of them can be observed in geochemical processes. The action of any geochemical barrier can be described from the viewpoint of thermodynamics; hence, a thermodynamic approach can be the basis for constructing a general theory of geochemical barriers, including complex ones. Within Earth, geochemical processes fall into two large groups: endogenous events taking place in the Earth's interior at an elevated temperature and pressure and exogenous processes occurring in the near-surface zone at normal pressure and low temperatures from below zero to slightly above it. Differentiation of the Earth's matter has resulted from a variety of geological processes, both endogenous and exogenous ones. In the geochemistry of endogenous processes an important role is played by fullerenes, which are specific polyatomic carbon molecules with unique physicochemical properties.
