The most notable examples of mass-independent fractionation in nature are found in the isotopes of oxygen and sulfur. The first example was discovered by Robert N. Clayton, Toshiko Mayeda, and Lawrence Grossman in 1973, in the oxygen isotopic composition of refractory calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions in the Allende meteorite. The inclusions, thought to be among the oldest solid materials in the Solar System, show a pattern of low 18O/16O and 17O/16O relative to samples from the Earth and Moon. Both ratios vary by the same amount in the inclusions, although the mass difference between 18O and 16O is almost twice as large as the difference between 17O and 16O. Originally this was interpreted as evidence of incomplete mixing of 16O-rich material into the Solar nebula. However, recent measurement of the oxygen-isotope composition of the Solar wind, using samples collected by the Genesis spacecraft, shows that the most 16O-rich inclusions are close to the bulk composition of the solar system. This implies that Earth, the Moon, Mars and asteroids all formed from 18O- and 17O-enriched material. Photochemical dissociation of carbon monoxide in the Solar nebula has been proposed to explain this isotope fractionation. Mass-independent fractionation also has been observed in ozone. Large, 1:1 enrichments of 18O/16O and 17O/16O in ozone were discovered in laboratory synthesis experiments by Mark Thiemens and John Heidenreich in 1983, and later found in stratospheric air samples measured by Konrad Mauersberger. These enrichments were eventually traced to the three-body ozone formation reaction. Theoretical calculations by Rudolph Marcus and others suggest that the enrichments are the result of a combination of mass-dependent and mass-independent kinetic isotope effects involving the excited state O3* intermediate related to some unusual symmetry properties. The mass-dependent isotope effect occurs in asymmetric species, and arises from the difference in zero-point energy of the two formation channels available These mass-dependent zero-point energy effects cancel one another out and do not affect the enrichment in heavy isotopes observed in ozone. The mass-independent enrichment in ozone is still not fully understood, but may be due to isotopically symmetric O3* having a shorter lifetime than asymmetric O3*, thus not allowing a statistical distribution of energy throughout all the degrees of freedom, resulting in a mass-independent distribution of isotopes.
Mass-independent sulfur fractionation
Mass-independent fractionation of sulfur can be observed in ancient sediments, where it preserves a signal of the prevailing environmental conditions. The creation and transfer of the mass-independent signature into minerals would be unlikely in an atmosphere containing abundant oxygen, constraining the Great Oxygenation Event to some time after. Prior to this time, the MIS record implies that sulfate-reducing bacteria did not play a significant role in the global sulfur cycle, and that the MIS signal is due primarily to changes in volcanic activity.
