heavy oxygen

American  

noun

1. either of the two stable isotopes of oxygen having mass numbers of 17 and 18.

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Example Sentences

In addition to being one of the oldest meteorites ever discovered, it is also the only meteorite that contains cosmic symplectite — or very heavy oxygen isotopes.

From Salon

Samples from a 3.24-billion-year-old chunk of oceanic crust left on Australia’s mainland were far richer in a heavy oxygen isotope than the present-day oceans.

From Science Magazine

Because water loses this heavy oxygen when rain reacts with the continental crust to form clays, its abundance in the ancient ocean suggests the continents had barely emerged by that point, Johnson and Wing concluded in a 2020 Nature Geoscience study.

From Science Magazine

Next, they analyzed how heavy oxygen, heavy carbon, and trace elements changed from layer to layer, revealing how wet the climate was at any given point in the past.

From Science Magazine

When rain falls, drops bearing heavy oxygen-18 isotopes land before those holding lighter oxygen-16 isotopes.

From Science Magazine