Sentences with phrase «light oxygen isotopes»

When glaciers melt, fresh water, enriched in light oxygen isotopes (oxygen 16), mixes with the bottom water.

Dust from our own solar system has a characteristic ratio of heavy to light oxygen isotopes.

Not exact matches

David Hodell, Jason Curtis and Mark Brenner from the University of Florida obtained their evidence from the ratio of calcium carbonate to calcium sulphate in sediments from Lake Chichancanab, in Yucátan, Mexico, and from the proportion of heavy to light isotopes of oxygen in buried shells.

In the thin, dry Martian atmosphere, the sun's ultraviolet light causes unique shifts in the proportions in which the three isotopes of oxygen occur in the different atmospheric gases.

The proxy works like this: Although water can form using either a light or a heavy oxygen isotope, snails more readily draw in water with oxygen - 16 than with its heavier counterpart, oxygen - 18.

The record tells the story of the sudden release of an isotopically light source of carbon, triggering a fast warming in the deep sea of about 5 degrees C. Both the carbon isotope signal and the temperature (inferred from oxygen isotopes) then relaxed back toward their initial values in about 100,000 years.

Phytoplankton prefer to consume nitrate with lighter oxygen and nitrogen isotopes, so they leave behind heavier isotopes; measuring these can reveal microbial activity in the environment.

The proxy works like this: Although water can form using either a light or a heavy oxygen isotope, snails more readily draw in water with oxygen - 16 than with its heavier counterpart, oxygen - 18.

As marine creatures form shells, bones and teeth, «they tend to use lighter isotopes of oxygen under warmer conditions,» Wignall said.