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Which oxygen isotopes occur naturally?
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oxygen group element
Modern version of the periodic table of the elements (printable).
Natural oxygen consists of a mixture of three stable isotopes:
- Oxygen-16: 99.759 percent
- Oxygen-17: 0.037 percent
- Oxygen-18: 0.204 percent1
While these stable isotopes occur naturally, several radioactive isotopes have been prepared artificially, such as oxygen-15, which is used in scientific research. Variations in the relative abundances of the stable isotopes, particularly the ratio of oxygen-18 to oxygen-16, are used by scientists to study climatic history and biochemical processes.123