Abstract
There is little need to elaborate the importance and significance of water for all forms of life on Earth (including us) since life on Earth is water based. In addition, a very significant portion (approximately 71%) of the planet’s surface is covered with water in the form of oceans and lakes, which are also host of a vast amount of aquatic plants and animals. In this chapter, we will examine the way water isotopes fractionate during the global water cycle and its various interaction.
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Clark ID, Fritz P (1997) Environmental isotopes in hydrogeology, Lewis Publishers, New York, 328 p
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Further Reading
Further Reading
Several very good books, or chapters in other books, are published on the subject, including this short selection:
Isotope Tracers in Catchment Hydrology, C. Kendall and J.J. McDonnell, Editors, Elsevier, 1998, ISBN 978-008-092915-6.
Environmental Isotopes in Hydrogeology, I.D. Clark and P. Fritz, Lewis Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1-56670-249-6.
Stable Isotope Geochemistry: a Tribute to Samuel Epstein, H.P. Taylor, J.R. O’Neil, and I.R. Kaplan, Editors. The Geochemical Society Special Publication #3, ISBN 0-941809-02-1. Of particular interest here is Part B, The Hydrosphere and Ancient Oceans.
Isotopes in the Water Cycle: Past, Present and Future of a Developing Science, P.K. Aggarwal, J.R. Gat, and K.F. Froehlich, Editors, Springer Science, 2006, ISBN 978-140-203023-9.
Isotope Hydrology, P.K. Aggarwal, Editor, IAHS Press, 2012, ISBN 978-190-716129-2.
Environmental Isotopes in the Hydrological Cycle: Principles and Applications, W.G. Mook. IHP-V Technical Documents in Hydrology, Nº 39. UNESCO—IAEA 2001.
Questions
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What are the main reservoirs of water on Earth?
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What sort of fractionation occurs during evaporation and condensation?
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What is the relationship between the extent of fractionation between hydrogen and oxygen isotopes during the water cycle? What is it defined by? What is this relationship called?
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What factors, and to what extent, affect the meteoric water isotopes composition?
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What is Rayleigh distillation? How does it work?
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What are the effects of evaporation, and how will they differ according to changing environmental conditions?
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What is the basic isotopic mixture equation, and how can it be modified to suit our needs? What is its graphic representation?
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Alexandre, P. (2020). Stable Isotopes and the Hydrosphere. In: Isotopes and the Natural Environment. Springer Textbooks in Earth Sciences, Geography and Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33652-3_3
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