Mass Fractionation Laws, Mass-Independent Effects, and Isotopic Anomalies

Isotopic variations usually follow mass-dependent fractionation, meaning that the relative variations in isotopic ratios scale with the difference in mass of the isotopes involved (e.g., delta O-17 approximate to 0.5 x delta O-18). In detail, however, the mass dependence of isotopic variations is not always the same, and different natural processes can define distinct slopes in three-isotope diagrams. These variations are subtle, but improvements in analytical capabilities now allow precise measurement of these effects and make it possible to draw inferences about the natural processes that caused them (e.g., reaction kinetics versus equilibrium isotope exchange). Some elements, in some sample types, do not conform to the regularities of mass-dependent fractionation. Oxygen and sulfur display a rich phenomenology of mass-independent fractionation, documented in the laboratory, in the rock record, and in the modern atmosphere. Oxygen in meteorites shows isotopic variations that follow a slope-one line (delta O-17 approximate to delta O-18) whose origin may be associated with CO photodissociation. Sulfur mass-independent fractionation in ancient sediments provides the tightest constraint on the oxygen partial pressure in the Archean and the timing of Earth's surface oxygenation.