Jochen Hoefs
University of Göttingen
Goldschmidtstr. 1
37077 Göttingen
Germany
Stable isotope investigations in the earth sciences continue to grow, maybe faster
than ever before. After publication of the 5th edition, tremendous progress has been
achieved in many subfields of stable isotope geochemistry. To name a few:
– Applications of Multicollector - ICP-MS has grown rapidly and now enable investigations
on natural isotope variations of a wide range of transition and heavy
elements that could not previously be measured with adequate precision.
– Precise ion probe measurements on the micrometer scale allow the detection of
the growth and dissolution history of minerals.
– Evidence for mass-independent fractionation in a variety of compounds and elements
has increased considerably.
– High precision analysis of the multiple rare isotopes of a specific element permit
the distinction of different mass-dependent fractionation mechanisms.
– Precise measurements of molecules containing more than one rare isotope indicate
non-random distributions of the rare isotopes, which potentially may be
utilized as one-mineral thermometers.
These recent advances made a further revision necessary. Again I have tried to
provide a contemporary overview of the entire field of stable isotope geochemistry
enabling a quick access to the most recent literature, although many references date
back to the 1960 and 1970s when seminal papers were published. I am fully aware
of omissions and shortcomings, but I hope the new edition gives a well balanced
discussion of the whole field including the new isotope systems introduced mainly
by MC-ICP-MS techniques.
My colleagues Michael B¨ottcher, Max Coleman, Alan Matthews and Harald
Strauß have reviewed an early draft, which is gratefully acknowledged. Yongsheng
He was of great help during the preparation of some figures. I take, however, full
responsibility for any shortcomings that remain.