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An isochron diagram will only give a valid age if all samples are cogenetic, which means they have the same initial isotopic composition (that is, the rocks are from the same unit, the minerals are from the same rock, etc.), all samples have the same initial isotopic composition (at t 0), and the system has remained closed.
Stable isotopes partitioning between two substances A and B can be expressed by the use of the isotopic fractionation factor (alpha): α A-B = R A /R B. where R is the ratio of the heavy to light isotope (e.g., 2 H/ 1 H or 18 O/ 16 O). Values for alpha tend to be very close to 1. [1] [2]
When it was realized that all of these are isotopes of the same element, many of these names fell out of use, and "radium" came to refer to all isotopes, not just 226 Ra, [5] though mesothorium 1 in particular was still used for some time, with a footnote explaining that it referred to 228 Ra. [6] Some of radium-226's decay products received ...
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 ...
Equilibrium isotope fractionation is the partial separation of isotopes between two or more substances in chemical equilibrium. Equilibrium fractionation is strongest at low temperatures, and (along with kinetic isotope effects) forms the basis of the most widely used isotopic paleothermometers (or climate proxies): D/H and 18 O/ 16 O records from ice cores, and 18 O/ 16 O records from calcium ...
Here, R A is the isotope amount ratio of the natural analyte, R A = n(i A) A /n(j A) A, R B is the isotope amount ratio of the isotopically enriched analyte, R B = n(i A) B /n(j A) B, R AB is the isotope amount ratio of the resulting mixture, x(j A) A is the isotopic abundance of the minor isotope in the natural analyte, and x(j A) B is the ...
Archaeological materials, such as bone, organic residues, hair, or sea shells, can serve as substrates for isotopic analysis. Carbon, nitrogen and zinc isotope ratios are used to investigate the diets of past people; these isotopic systems can be used with others, such as strontium or oxygen, to answer questions about population movements and cultural interactions, such as trade.
The most notable examples of mass-independent fractionation in nature are found in the isotopes of oxygen and sulfur.The first example was discovered by Robert N. Clayton, Toshiko Mayeda, and Lawrence Grossman in 1973, [2] in the oxygen isotopic composition of refractory calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions in the Allende meteorite.