1. Stable Isotopes in Quaternary Studies

2. Applications of stable isotopes
Ice core and past climates
Marine sediments, foraminifera and the SPECMAP global ice record
Speleothem and paleotemperatures

3. H2O
Oxygen
16O

4. 8 protons
8 neutrons +
16O

5. 8 protons
10 neutrons +
18O

6. 18O 1 =
16O
2000

8. Environmental Isotopes
The Stable
Environmental Isotopes
Isotope Ratio % natural Reference
abundance
2H 2H/1H VSMOW
3He 3He/4He Atmospheric He
13C 13C/12C VPDB
15N 15N/14N AIR N2
18O 18O/16O VSMOW, VPDB
34S 34S/32S CDT
37Cl 37Cl/35Cl SMOC

9. Delta - permil: d - ‰
‰ VSMOW

10. Isotope fractionation, a
‰ VSMOW

11. Rainout and Rayleigh Distillation

12. Rainout and Rayleigh Distillation
heavy isotopes

13. Rainout and Rayleigh Distillation
light isotopes
heavy isotopes

14. d18O in North American Precipitation

16. The d18O – T Correlation in Precipitation

17. Vostok – a 500 ka
Temperature record
In an ice core

19. The d18O – T Correlation in Precipitation

20. T = 1.1 d18O

21. Paleo Effect for d18O in precipitation

22. Marine sediment cores

23. Foraminifera: unicellular marine animals with shells constructed of CaCO3 d18Owater → d18OCaCO3 Proxy record of seawater 18O

24. SPECMAP
marine
sediment
record
 more ice less ice 

25. Interglacial

26. Ice Age
-36‰
-20‰