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DEDICATION Dr. William C. Luth has had a long and distinguished career in research, education and in the government. He was a leader in experimental petrology and in training graduate students at Stanford University. His efforts at Sandia National Laboratory and at the Department of Energy's headquarters resulted in the initiation and long-term support of many of the cutting edge research projects whose results form the foundations of these short courses. Bill's broad interest in understanding fundamental geochemical processes and their applications to national problems is a continuous thread through both his university and government career. He retired in 1996, but his efforts to foster excellent basic research, and to promote the development of advanced analytical capabilities gave a unique focus to the basic research portfolio in Geosciences at the Department of Energy. He has been, and continues to be, a friend and mentor to many of us. It is appropriate to celebrate his career in education and government service with this series of courses in cutting-edge geochemistry that have particular focus on Department of Energy-related science, at a time when he can still enjoy the recognition of his contributions. — STABLE ISOTPOE GEOCHEMISTRY — 43 Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 43 FOREWORD The scientific editors of this volume, John Valley and David Cole, organized a Short Course on Stable Isotope Geochemistry presented November 2-4 2001 in conjunction with the annual meetings of the Geological Society of America in Boston, Massachusetts. The contributors to this review volume were the instructors. The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) sponsored the course and is published and distributor of this and other books in the Review in Mineralogy and Geochemistry series. Alex Speer, Executive Director of MSA, and Myrna Byer, of Printing Service Associates, Inc., are acknowledged for their considerable contributions to the success of this volume. MSA has been in partnership with the Geochemical Society (GS) since 2000 and the publication of Volume 39, Transformation Processes in Minerals. As a result, the Reviews volumes are now covering an ever-widening range of subjects. An Additional series editor, Jodi J Rosso, has joined the team to manage those short-course publications and other books which will be sponsored by the Geochemical Society MSA and the editors of Stable Isotope Geochemistry are particularly grateful to the Geosciences Research Program (Nick Woodwood, director) of the U.S. Department of Energy for financial support of this publications and student scholarships through a grant to MSA. Paul H. Ribbe Series Editor for MSA Blacksburg, Virginia September 14, 2001 PREFACE This volume follows the 1986 reviews in Mineralogy (Vol.16) in approach but reflects significant changes in the fields of Stable Isotope Geochemistry , In terms of new technology, new sub-disciplines, and numbers of researchers, the field has changes more in the past decade than in any other since that of it birth. Unlike the 1986 volume, which was restricted to high temperature fields, this book covers a wider range of disciplines. However, it would not be possible to fit a comprehensive review into a single volume. Our goal is to provide state-ofthe-art reviews in chosen subjects that have emerged or advanced greatly since 1986. The field of Stable Isotope Geochemistry was born of a good idea and nurtured by technology, in 1947, Harold Urey published his calculated values of reduced partition function for oxygen isotopes and his idea (a good one!) that the fractionation of oxygen isotope between calcite and water might provide a means to estimate the temperatures of geologic events. Building on wartime Advances in electronics, Alfred Nier then designed and built the dual-inlet, gas source mass-spectrometer capable of making measurements