Experimental study on stable isotopic fractionation of evaporating water under varying temperature

Abstract

The variation of stable isotope ratios in natural waters provides valuable information that can be used to trace water movement. Evaporation plays a crucial role in determining the variation of stable isotopes. In this paper, several evaporation experiments were conducted in order to study the stable isotopic fractionation mechanism of water and analyze the influence of different temperatures on evaporation fractionation. Three group experiments of water evaporation under different temperatures and initial isotopic values were carried out. The results show that fractionation factors of hydrogen and oxygen may increase with temperature, and the average enrichment degree of hydrogen isotope D is 3.432 times that of oxygen isotope . The results also show that the isotopic composition of the initial water has little influence on water evaporation fractionation, which is mainly affected by the state variables in the evaporation process, such as temperature. This research provides experimental data for further understanding the evaporation fractionation mechanism. 18O

Keywords

• water evaporation
• hydrogen and oxygen isotopes
• fractionation mechanism
• temperature
• experimental study