Asian monsoons in a late Eocene greenhouse world.

The strong present-day Asian monsoons are thought to have originated between 25 and 22 million years (Myr) ago, driven by Tibetan-Himalayan uplift. However, the existence of older Asian monsoons and their response to enhanced greenhouse conditions such as those in the Eocene period (55-34 Myr ago) are unknown because of the paucity of well-dated records. Here we show late Eocene climate records revealing marked monsoon-like patterns in rainfall and wind south and north of the Tibetan-Himalayan orogen. This is indicated by low oxygen isotope values with strong seasonality in gastropod shells and mammal teeth from Myanmar, and by aeolian dust deposition in northwest China. Our climate simulations support modern-like Eocene monsoonal rainfall and show that a reinforced hydrological cycle responding to enhanced greenhouse conditions counterbalanced the negative effect of lower Tibetan relief on precipitation. These strong monsoons later weakened with the global shift to icehouse conditions 34 Myr ago.

Isotopic tracing of clear water sources in an urban sewer: A combined water and dissolved sulfate stable isotope approach.

This paper investigates the potential of stable isotopes of both water (deltaD and deltaOH(2)O18) and dissolved sulfate (delta(34)S and deltaOSO(4)18) for determining the origin and the amount of clear waters entering an urban sewer. The dynamics of various hydrological processes that commonly occur within the sewer system such as groundwater infiltration, rainwater percolation, or stormwater release from retention basins, can be readily described using water isotope ratios. In particular, stable water isotopes indicate that the relative volumes of infiltrated groundwater and sewage remain approximately constant and independent of wastewater flow rate during the day, thus demonstrating that the usual quantification of parasitic discharge from minimal nocturnal flow measurements can lead to completely erroneous results. The isotopic signature of dissolved sulfate can also provide valuable information about the nature of water inputs to the sewage flow, but could not be used in our case to quantify the infiltrating water. Indeed, even though the microbial activity had a limited effect on the isotopic composition of dissolved sulfate at the sampling sites investigated, the dissolved sulfate concentration in sewage was regulated by the formation of barite and calcium-phosphate mineral species. Sulfate originating from urine was also detected as a source using the oxygen isotopic composition of sulfate, which suggests that deltaOSO(4)18 might find use as a urine tracer.

Oxygen isotopes and emerald trade routes since antiquity

Oxygen isotopic compositions of historical emerald artifacts from the Gallo-Roman period to the 18th century indicate that during historical times, artisans worked emeralds originating from deposits supposedly discovered in the 20th century. In antiquity, Pakistani and Egyptian emeralds were traded by way of the Silk Route. Together with Austrian stones, they were the only source of gem-quality emeralds. Immediately after the discovery of the Colombian mines by Spaniards in the 16th century, a new trade route was established, first via Spain to Europe and India and then directly via the Philippines to India. Since then, Colombian emeralds have dominated the emerald trade, and most of the high-quality emeralds cut in the 18th century in India originated from Colombia.