Isotopes of aluminium
Open-knowledge reference entry
Aluminium or aluminum (13Al) has one stable isotope, 27Al, comprising all natural aluminium. The radioactive 26Al, with half-life 717,000 years, occurs in traces from cosmic-ray spallation of argon in the atmosphere.
Other than 26Al, there are 22 known synthetic radioisotopes from 20Al to 43Al, and 4 known metastable states; all have half-lives under 7 minutes, most under a second.
26Al is an extinct radionuclide and has received attention as such, being used in the study of meteorites. Its terrestrial occurrence has also found practical application in dating marine sediments, manganese nodules, glacial ice, quartz in rock exposures, and meteorites. The ratio of 26Al to 10Be has been used to study the role of sediment transport, deposition, and storage, as well as burial times, and erosion, on 105 to 106 year time scales.
List of isotopes
Aluminium-26
Cosmogenic aluminium-26 was first described in studies of the Moon and meteorites. Meteorite fragments, after departure from their parent bodies, are exposed to intense cosmic-ray bombardment during their travel through space, causing substantial 26Al production. After falling to Earth, atmospheric shielding protects the meteorite fragments from further 26Al production, and its decay can then be used to determine the meteorite's terrestrial age. Meteorite research has also shown that 26Al was relatively abundant at the time of formation of our planetary system.
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