Isotope persisted down to the present because their rate of decay is so slow (e.g. uranium-238 and potassium-40). Post-primordial isotopes were created by cosmic ray bombardment as cosmogenic nuclides (e.g., tritium, carbon-14), or by the decay of a radioactive primordial isotope to a radioactive radiogenic nuclide daughter (e.g. uranium to radium). A few isotopes are naturally synthesized as nucleogenic nuclides, by some other natural nuclear reaction, such as when neutrons from natural nuclear fission are absorbed by another atom. As discussed above, only 80 elements have any stable isotopes, and 26 of these have only one stable isotope. Thus, about two-thirds
Hydrogen isotope biogeochemistry reconstructions. Since water is the primary hydrogen source for photoautotrophs, the hydrogen isotope composition of their biomass can be related to the composition of their growth water and thereby used to gain insight into some properties of ancient environments. Studying hydrogen isotopes can be very valuable, as hydrogen is more directly related to climate than other relevant stable isotope systems. However, hydrogen atoms bonded to oxygen, nitrogen, or sulfur atoms are exchangeable with environmental hydrogen, which makes this system less straightforward [ref to earlier H exchange section]. To study the hydrogen isotope composition of biomolecules, it is preferable to use