The Isotope Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry of Magnesium

Edward D. Young; Albert Galy

doi:10.2138/gsrmg.55.1.197

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Research Article| January 01, 2004

The Isotope Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry of Magnesium

Edward D. Young;

Edward D. Young

Department of Earth and Space Sciences, and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1567, U.S.A.

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Albert Galy

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, United Kingdom

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Author and Article Information

Edward D. Young

Department of Earth and Space Sciences, and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1567, U.S.A.

Albert Galy

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, United Kingdom

Publisher: Mineralogical Society of America

First Online: 03 Mar 2017

Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry (2004) 55 (1): 197–230.

https://doi.org/10.2138/gsrmg.55.1.197

Magnesium is second only to oxygen in abundance among the rock-forming elements and is an important element in the oceans and in hydrological and biological systems. Differences in the relative abundances of its three stable isotopes, ²⁴Mg (78.99%), ²⁵Mg (10.00%), and ²⁶Mg (11.01%), are expected as a result of physicochemical processes because of the large relative mass differences of 4 and 8% between ²⁵Mg and ²⁶Mg, and ²⁴Mg, respectively. Although isotopes of Mg have been used for many years as tracers in artificially spiked systems (in which the abundance of one isotope is enriched)...