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Radiogenic Tracers

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Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

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Synonyms

Dating; Isotopes; Stratigraphy; Tracers

Isotopes can be characterized to be stable, cosmogenic, radioactive, or radiogenic. Stable isotopes do not change their relative abundance in the environment as long as no isotopes are added or extracted from the system. Cosmogenic isotopes are produced by high energetic cosmic rays in the upper layers of the atmosphere and are usually radioactive also. Radioactive isotopes change their abundance in the environment according to their half-life (T1/2), whereas radiogenic isotopes are not radioactive itself but change their abundance according to the half-life of their mother isotope. There are several important radiogenic systems known, and the most important are 238U/206Pb, 190Pt/186Os, 147Sm/143Nd, 87Rb/87Sr, 187Re/187Os, 176Lu/176Hf, 232Th/208Pb, 40 K/40Ar, 40 K/40Ca, 235U/207Pb, 129I/129Xe, 10Be/10B, 26Al/26 Mg, 36Cl/36Ar, 14C/14N, etc. For the geological sciences, the most important radiogenic isotope systems are the radiogenic...

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Bibliography

  • Dickin, A. P., 1995. Radiogenic Isotope Geology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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  • Faure, G., 1986. Principles of Isotope Geology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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  • Veizer, J., 1989. Strontium isotopes in seawater through time. The Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 17, 141–167.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, D-24248, Wischhofstr. 1-3, Germany

    Anton Eisenhauer

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  1. Anton Eisenhauer
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Correspondence to Anton Eisenhauer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. Leibiniz Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and Lit c/o Helmholtz-Center for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Jörn Thiede

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Eisenhauer, A. (2015). Radiogenic Tracers. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_90-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_90-4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6644-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Radiogenic Tracers
    Published:
    12 February 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_90-4

  2. Original

    Radiogenic Tracers
    Published:
    12 February 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_90-3

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