Isotope study of snow and rain on Mount Lebanon: preliminary results

Preliminary stable isotope analyses were carried out on snow and rainfall samples, on a snow profile and on two karstic springs on Mount Lebanon. They confirm the seasonal variability of the isotopic rain signal, and particularly that the deuterium excess is related to air mass trajectories and to evaporation over the Mediterranean Sea. They also show that the isotopic content of the snow cover does not strongly respond to sublimation, evaporation or melting-freezing phenomena. The snowmelt influence on karstic springs is qualitatively observed.