Isotopes of osmium
Open-knowledge reference entry
Osmium (76Os) has seven naturally occurring isotopes, five of which are stable: 187Os, 188Os, 189Os, 190Os, and (most abundant) 192Os. The other natural isotopes, 184Os and 186Os, have extremely long half-lives (1.12×1013 years and 2.0×1015 years, respectively) and for practical purposes can be considered to be stable as well. 187Os is the daughter of 187Re (half-life 4.12×1010 years) and is most often measured by the 187Os/188Os ratio. This ratio, as well as the 187Re/188Os ratio, have been used extensively in dating terrestrial as well as meteoric rocks. It has also been used to measure the intensity of continental weathering over geologic time and to fix minimum ages for stabilization of the mantle roots of continental cratons.
There are also 31 artificial radioisotopes, the longest-lived of which are 194Os with a half-life of 6.0 years, 185Os with 92.95 days, and 191Os with 14.99 days; others are under 30 hours, with most under seven minutes. There are also 19 listed nuclear isomers, the longest-lived of which is 191mOs with a half-life of 13.10 hours. All isotopes and nuclear isomers of osmium are either radioactive or observationally stable, meaning that they are predicted to be radioactive but no actual decay has been observed.
Osmium isotopes in radiometric dating
The isotopic ratio of osmium-187 and osmium-188 (187Os/188Os) can be used as a window into geochemical changes throughout the ocean's history. The average marine 187Os/188Os ratio in oceans is 1.06.
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