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USGS46a Greenland ice core water – A reference material for stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of water

Metadata Updated: January 21, 2026

Ice core from Greenland was melted, filtered, and homogenized. Its stable hydrogen (δ2H) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopic compositions were adjusted to approximately match those of USGS46 ice core water (δ2H = –235.8 ‰ and δ18O = –29.80 ‰). This isotopic reference water, USGS46a, was loaded into glass ampules, sealed, autoclaved to eliminate biological activity, and calibrated by dual-inlet isotope-ratio mass spectrometry and laser absorption spectrometry. USGS46a is intended as one of two secondary 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. The measured δ2H and δ18O values of USGS46a reference water were –235.6 ± 0.7 ‰ and –30.09 ± 0.05 ‰, respectively, relative to VSMOW on scales normalized such that the δ2H and δ18O 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-percent probability of encompassing the true value. This reference water is available in cases containing 144 glass ampules that are filled with 5 mL of water per ampule and in silver tubes for use in high temperature elemental analyzers.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 13, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 13, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_614b9675d34e0df5fb97c6bc
Data Last Modified 2021-10-25T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260121062710
Harvest Object Id 454ae4b4-4e67-42c8-9abe-a344ad91dab5
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180.0, -90.0, -180.0, 90.0, 180.0, 90.0, 180.0, -90.0, -180.0, -90.0}
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 7914320f8c8b50c63bb136b02fadded5fea599b1533d79bbe083dfa836d6f611
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180.0, -90.0, -180.0, 90.0, 180.0, 90.0, 180.0, -90.0, -180.0, -90.0}

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