Lake Louise Water (USGS47): A new isotopic reference water for stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope measurements

RATIONALE: Because of the paucity of isotopic reference waters for daily use, a new secondary isotopic reference material has been prepared from Lake Louise water from Alberta, Canada, for international distribution. METHODS: This water was filtered, homogenized, loaded into glass ampoules, sealed with a torch, autoclaved to eliminate biological activity, and measured by dual-inlet isotope-ratio mass spectrometry. This isotopic reference water is available by the case of 144 glass ampoules containing 5 mL of water in each ampoule. RESULTS: The δ(2)H and δ(18)O values of this reference water are -150.2 ± 0.5‰ and -19.80 ± 0.02‰, respectively, relative to VSMOW, on scales normalized such that the δ(2)H and δ(18)O values of SLAP reference water are, respectively, -428 and -55.5‰. Each uncertainty is an estimated expanded uncertainty (U = 2uc) about the reference value that provides an interval that has about a 95% probability of encompassing the true value. CONCLUSIONS: This isotopic reference material, designated as USGS47, is intended as one of two isotopic reference waters for daily normalization of stable hydrogen and stable oxygen isotopic analysis of water with a mass spectrometer or a laser absorption spectrometer. Published in 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.