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Oxygen (chemical symbol O) has three naturally occurring isotopes: 16 O, 17 O, and 18 O, where the 16, 17 and 18 refer to the atomic mass.The most abundant is 16 O, with a small percentage of 18 O and an even smaller percentage of 17 O. Oxygen isotope analysis considers only the ratio of 18 O to 16 O present in a sample.
Isotope fractionation occurs during a phase transition, when the ratio of light to heavy isotopes in the involved molecules changes. When water vapor condenses (an equilibrium fractionation), the heavier water isotopes (18 O and 2 H) become enriched in the liquid phase while the lighter isotopes (16 O and 1 H) tend toward the vapor phase. [1]
As some methods of isotope separation enrich not only heavier isotopes of hydrogen but also heavier isotopes of oxygen when producing heavy water, the concentration of 17 O and 18 O can be measurably higher. Furthermore, the 17 O (n,α) 14 C reaction is a
Where δ 18 O and δ 2 H (aka δD) are the ratio of heavy to light isotopes (e.g. 18 O/ 16 O, 2 H/ 1 H). The relationship of δ 18 O and δ 2 H in meteoric water is caused by mass dependent fractionation of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes between evaporation from ocean seawater and condensation from vapor. [ 3 ]
An example of the production cycle is a 90-minute irradiation of 2 milliliters of 18 O-enriched water in a titanium cell, through a 25 μm thick window made of Havar (a cobalt alloy) foil, with a proton beam having an energy of 17.5 MeV and a beam current of 30 microamperes.
Paleoclimatologists measure the ratio of oxygen-18 and oxygen-16 in the shells and skeletons of marine organisms to determine the climate millions of years ago (see oxygen isotope ratio cycle). Seawater molecules that contain the lighter isotope , oxygen-16, evaporate at a slightly faster rate than water molecules containing the 12% heavier ...
The equations can be used to describe an isotope fractionation process if: (1) material is continuously removed from a mixed system containing molecules of two or more isotopic species (e.g., water with 18 O and 16 O, or sulfate with 34 S and 32 S), (2) the fractionation accompanying the removal process at any instance is described by the ...
Emiliani's work in turn depended on Harold Urey's prediction in a paper of 1947 that the ratio between oxygen-18 and oxygen-16 isotopes in calcite, the main chemical component of the shells and other hard parts of a wide range of marine organisms, should vary depending on the prevailing water temperature in which the calcite was formed. [3]