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Zinc Isotopes

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Geochemistry

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

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Introduction and Definitions

Zinc is comprised of five natural stable isotopes, 64Zn(48.6 %), 66Zn (27.9 %), 67Zn (4.1 %), 68Zn (18.8 %), and 70Zn (0.6 %). Due to its relatively high first ionization potential (9.4 eV), the measurement of Zn isotope ratios is very difficult by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS). This explains the very limited Zn isotope data produced before the advent of multi-collection inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). Since the first commercialized MC-ICP-MS in the late 1990s and the first high precision Zn isotope ratio measurements (Maréchal et al., 1999), more than 1000 papers have been published (source ISI Web of Science) on various geochemistry topics associated with Zn isotopes (e.g., oceanography, cosmochemistry, environmental sciences, medical sciences). Generally, the isotopic data are acquired by MC-ICP-MS by either standard bracketing (e.g., Maréchal et al., 1999; Weiss et al., 2005; Viers et al., 2007; Balistrieri et...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, CNRS UMR 7154, 1 rue Jussieu, 75238 Cedex 05, Paris, France

    Frédéric Moynier

  2. Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France

    Frédéric Moynier

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  1. Frédéric Moynier
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Correspondence to Frédéric Moynier .

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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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Moynier, F. (2016). Zinc 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_215-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_215-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39193-9

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