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Sulfur Isotopes

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Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Sulfur isotope systematics

The element sulfur has four stable isotopes 32S, 33S, 34S and 36S with the following natural abundances: 95.02%, 0.75%, 4.21%, and 0.02% (Hoefs, 1997). Most commonly, the two major isotopes (32S, 34S) are being measured and results expressed as δ 34S, defined by the following equation

$$\delta ^{34}{\rm S} \left[ {{\raise0.5ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle 0$} \kern-0.1em/\kern-0.15em \lower0.25ex\hbox{$\scriptstyle {00}$}} } \right] = \left( {{{\left({{{{}^{34}{\rm{S}}}\over{{}^{32}{\rm{S}}}}} \right)_{{\rm{Sample}}}}\over{\left( {{{{}^{34}{\rm{S}}}\over{{}^{32}{\rm{S}}}}}\right)_{{\rm{Standard}}} }} - 1} \right)1,000$$
((1))

and reported as per mil difference with respect to the V-CDT-standard (defining the Zero-Point of the sulfur isotope scale). Due to analytical improvements, the minor sulfur isotopes 33S and 36S can now be measured routinely with their delta values defined analogous to equation 1.

Sulfur is present in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and...

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Authors
  1. Harald Strauss
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  2. Ján Veizer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Vivien Gornitz

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag

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Strauss, H., Veizer, J. (2009). Sulfur Isotopes. In: Gornitz, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_216

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