Yet few give a second thought to the age of water, the mainstay of life. Using the formula, Criss is able to get an average age of water from any system he samples. The method will be essential to future water quality and climate change studies, and eventually will serve as a way to track both the time and severity of pollutant emissions in streams. Criss is incorporating it into an ambitious study of water quality in the watersheds of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, together the largest river system in North America.
Isotopes are different variations of the same element.
All three behave chemically as oxygen, differing only in their mass, or weight. All you know is when that tiny amount of trace material got in there. Similarly, Criss said, some researchers put dyes into water to get information about a water system. While this can reveal information about the flow of water, its fastest pathway and other clues about a system, it gives no clear picture of the water's age. 2000 conference held here.