Stable environmental isotopes and the delta notation

Stable isotopes serve as tracers of many processes, providing information on how chemical reactions proceed in nature. For instance, they can be used to understand rock forming processes, the water cycle, and physiological and environmental signals in plant materials. To quantify relative changes in the abundance of isotopes occurring due to these processes, we use the delta notation. But where does this notation come from and what does it mean? In order to explain that, let’s use hydrogen, carbon and oxygen as examples. As pointed out by some viewers (thanks!) there is a small mistake at ~2:59: D/H is equal to 0.0015 and 13C/12C is equal to 0.011. Please check my blog with a summary of this video's subject: https://www.fabianarichter.com/post/s...