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Chromium Isotopes

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Encyclopedia of Geochemistry

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definition

Chromium has four naturally occurring stable isotopes (50Cr, 52Cr, 53Cr, and 54Cr) with natural abundances of 4.35%, 83.79%, 9.50%, and 2.36%, respectively. Among these, 50Cr, 52Cr, and 54Cr are nonradiogenic, while 53Cr is the radiogenic product of 53Mn, an extinct nuclide with a half-life of 3.7 Myr. Chromium isotope variations in terrestrial samples are reported using the ratio 53Cr/52Cr, expressed in conventional delta notation (δ53Cr) relative to NIST SRM 979, a metallic Cr standard from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In meteorite samples, the ratio 54Cr/52Cr is sometimes used to report nuclear synthetic anomalies (conventionally reported in epsilon notation). Chromium isotopes have a wide range of applications in cosmochemistry, geochemistry, and environmental remediation efforts.

Introduction

The earliest work on Cr isotopes was largely focused on cosmochemical processes, namely the application of the short-lived 53Mn-53Cr radiochronometer to...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, 210 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Devon B. Cole, Xiangli Wang & Noah J. Planavsky

  2. Department of Earth and Space Science, China University of Science & Technology, Hefei, Hubei, 230026, China

    Liping Qin

  3. School of Earth and Atmospheric Science, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Christopher T. Reinhard

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  1. Devon B. Cole
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  2. Xiangli Wang
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  3. Liping Qin
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  4. Noah J. Planavsky
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  5. Christopher T. Reinhard
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Correspondence to Devon B. Cole .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Cornell University Department of Earth, Ithaca, New York, USA

    William M. White

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Cole, D.B., Wang, X., Qin, L., Planavsky, N.J., Reinhard, C.T. (2018). Chromium Isotopes. In: White, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_334-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_334-1

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