Lead isotope geochemistry stable isotopes

Yoshinaga, J., Yoneda, M., Morita, M., and Suzuki, T. (1998). Lead in prehistoric, historic and contemporary Japanese stable isotopic study by ICP mass spectrometry. Applied Geochemistry 13 403 113. 

Of special interest in stable isotope geochemistry are evaporation-condensation processes, because differences in the vapour pressures of isotopic compounds lead to significant isotope fractionations. For example, from the vapour pressure data for water given in Table 1.2, it is evident that the lighter molecnlar species are preferentially enriched in the vaponr phase, the extent depending upon the temperature. Such an isotopic separation process can be treated theoretically in terms of fractional distillation or condensation under equilibrium conditions as is expressed by the Rayleigh (1896) equation. For a condensation process, this equation is... 

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