Strontium (Sr)

Stable isotopes of strontium available from ISOFLEX

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Strontium was discovered in 1790 by Adair Crawford. It is named for the village of Strontian in Scotland.

A silvery-white metal when freshly cut, strontium rapidly turns yellow on exposure to air, forming a thin oxide coating. It has a face-centered cubic structure, is malleable and ductile, and is chemically similar to calcium. Soluble in alcohol, ethanol and acids, strontium is also a reactive metal. In its finely-divided form, the metal is pyrophoric and ignites in air to form both the oxide SrO and the peroxide SrO₂. Similarly, when heated with chlorine gas or bromine vapor, it burns brightly, forming its halides, SrCl₂ or SrBr₂. Strontium is also a reducing agent: it reduces oxides and halides of metals at elevated temperatures to metallic form. Spontaneously flammable in powder form, strontium ignites when heated above its melting point. It reacts with water to evolve hydrogen.

Elemental strontium has only minor uses, since most applications also involve calcium and barium. Strontium's alloys are used as “getters” for vacuum tubes. Strontium is incorporated in glass to make picture tubes for color televisions. Its compounds are used in tracer bullets and in fireworks to produce red signal flares. Strontium titanate is a gemstone. The radioactive isotope Strontium-90, with a half-life of 29 years, is a product of nuclear fission and a high-energy beta emitter. This isotope is a lightweight nuclear-electric power source in space vehicles and remote weather stations.

Strontium's radioactive isotopes emit high-energy beta radiation, causing damage — including cancer — to bone marrow and blood-forming organs.

Properties of Strontium

Research

• Stable isotopes of lead and strontium as tracers of sources of airborne particulate matter in Kyrgyzstan
• Strontium isotope characterization of wines from Quebec, Canada
• Simultaneous multi-element and isotope ratio imaging of fish otoliths by laser ablation split stream ICP-MS/MC ICP-MS
• Source of Lake Vostok cations constrained with strontium isotopes
• Spallation reaction study for fission products in nuclear waste: Cross-section measurements for ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr on proton and deuteron
• Mapping the elephants of the 19th-century East African ivory trade with a multi-isotope approach
• B isotopes of Carboniferous-Permian volcanic rocks in the Tuha basin mirror a transition from subduction to intraplate setting in Central Asian Orogenic Belt
• Trace element and Sr isotope records of multi-episode carbonatite metasomatism on the eastern margin of the North China Craton
• Characterising legacy spent nuclear fuel pond materials using microfocus X-ray absorption spectroscopy
• Investigation of a medieval pilgrim burial excavated from the Leprosarium of St. Mary Magdalen Winchester, UK
• Some mathematical and geophysical considerations in radioisotope dating applications
• Isotopic data for Late Cretaceous intrusions and associated altered and mineralized rocks in the Big Belt Mountains, Montana
• Natural gas industry wastewater pollution may linger for years
• On the hoof: exploring the supply of animals to the Roman legionary fortress at Caerleon using strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) isotope analysis
• Multi-isotope proveniencing of human remains from a Bronze Age battlefield in the Tollense Valley in northeast Germany
• An isotopic investigation into the origins and husbandry of Mid-Late Bronze Age cattle from Grimes Graves, Norfolk
• Isotopes and human burials at Viking Age Birka and the Mälaren region, eastcentral Sweden
• On the hoof: exploring the supply of animals to the Roman legionary fortress at Caerleon using strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) isotope analysis
• Earliest isotopic evidence in the Maya region for animal management and long-distance trade at the site of Ceibal, Guatemala
• Thirty-four years of stable isotopic analyses of ancient skeletons in China: An overview, progress and prospects
• High-resolution isotopic evidence of specialised cattle herding in the European Neolithic
• Isotopic evidence for ceremonial provisioning of Late Bronze age khirigsuurs with horses from diverse geographic locales
• Fifty years of Cook Inlet beluga whale feeding ecology from isotopes in bone and teeth
• Environmental Archaeology The Origins of Early Colonial Cows at San Bernabé, Guatemala: Strontium Isotope Values at an Early Spanish Mission in the Petén Lakes Region of Northern Guatemala
• Neolithic food miles: Feeding the builders of Stonehenge
• Un enterramiento colectivo en cueva del III milenio AC en el centro de la Península Ibérica: el Rebollosillo (Torrelaguna, Madrid)
• Of cattle and feasts: Multi-isotope investigation of animal husbandry and communal feasting at Neolithic Makriyalos, northern Greece
• Strontium isotope analysis on cremated human remains from Stonehenge support links with west Wales
• Evaluating competition and conflict among western Ukraine Neolithic farmers with stable isotope analyses of human teeth
• Early human dispersals within the Americas
• Tresness chambered tomb, Sanday: Excavations in 2018 Data Structure Report
• Understanding Final Neolithic communities in south-eastern Poland: New insights on diet and mobility from isotopic data
• Strontium and stable isotope evidence of human mobility strategies across the Last Glacial Maximum in southern Italy
• Paleodiet in the Iberian Peninsula: exploring the connections between diet, culture, disease and environment using isotopic and osteoarchaeological evidence
• Multi-isotope analysis reveals that feasts in the Stonehenge environs and across Wessex drew people and animals from throughout Britain
• Isotopic Evidence for Landscape use and the Role of Causewayed Enclosures During the Earlier Neolithic in Southern Britain
• Isotope values of the bioavailable strontium in inland southwestern Sweden—A baseline for mobility studies
• Detecting Mobility in Early Iron Age Thessaly by Strontium Isotope Analysis
• Patterns of camelid management in Wari Empire reconstructed using multiple stable isotope analysis: evidence from Castillo de Huarmey, northern coast of Peru
• Diet and Mobility Patterns in the Late Prehistory of Central Iberia (4000–1400 cal BC): The Evidence of Radiogenic (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and Stable (δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C) Isotope Ratios
• Animal husbandry in the Early and Middle Neolithic settlement at Kopydlowo in the Polish lowlands: A multi-isotope perspective
• The monastic mosaic at Mount Nebo, Jordan: biogeochemical and epigraphical evidence for diverse origins
• Intra-individual variability and strontium isotope measurements: A methodological study using ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr data from Pampa de los Gentiles, Chincha Valley, Peru
• Introducing δ⁸⁸/⁸⁶Sr analysis in archaeology: a demonstration of the utility of strontium isotope fractionation in paleodietary studies
• Flows of people in villages and large centres in Bronze Age Italy through strontium and oxygen isotopes
• Evidence for “Celtic migrations”? Strontium isotope analysis at the early La Tène (LT B) cemeteries of Nebringen (Germany) and Monte Bibele (Italy)
• Isotopic evidence for Middle Horizon to 16th century camelid herding in the Osmore Valley, Peru
• Establishing radiogenic strontium isotope signatures for Chavín de Huántar, Peru
• An isotopic perspective on the transport of Byzantine mining camp laborers into southwestern Jordan
• Strontium isotope evidence for human mobility in the Neolithic of northern Greece
• Territorial mobility and subsistence strategies during the Ebro Basin Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic: A multi-isotope approach from San Juan cave (Loarre, Spain)
• Applications of Sr Isotopes in Archaeology
• Investigating mobility and highland occupation strategies during the Early Holocene at the Cuncaicha rock shelter through strontium and oxygen isotopes
• Restricted pasturing of domesticated cattle at a Late Neolithic settlement in Central Germany
• Shipping amphorae and shipping sheep? Livestock mobility in the north-east Iberian peninsula during the Iron Age based on strontium isotopic analyses of sheep and goat tooth enamel
• Patterns of paleomobility in the ancient Antilles: an isotopic approach
• The llama’s share: Highland origins of camelids during the Late Paracas period (370 to 200 BCE) in south Peru demonstrated by strontium isotope analysis
• Identification of strontium in the merger of two neutron stars
• Feasting and Mobility in Iron Age Ireland: Multi-isotope analysis reveals the vast catchment of Navan Fort, Ulster
• A Multidisciplinary Approach to Neolithic Life Reconstruction
• Heading for the hills? A multi-isotope study of sheep management in first-millennium BC Italy
• Perspectives from a human-centred archaeology: Iron Age people and society on Öland
• The Isotopic Ecology of Fossil Vertebrates and Conservation Paleobiology
• Analysis of seasonal mobility of sheep in Iron Age Catalonia (north-eastern Spain) based on strontium and oxygen isotope analysis from tooth enamel: First results
• Archaeometric contributions to agropastoral production research in Aguada society (Ambato Valley, Catamarca)
• An isotopic generation: four decades of stable isotope analysis in African archaeology
• Animal mobility in Chalcolithic Portugal: Isotopic analyses of cattle from the sites of Zambujal and Leceia
• Health, cattle and ploughs: Bioarchaeological consequences of the Secondary Products Revolution in southern Sweden, 2300-1100 BCE
• Reconstructing caribou seasonal biogeography in Little Ice Age (late Holocene) Western Alaska using intra-tooth strontium and oxygen isotope analysis
• A Community in Life and Death: The Late Neolithic Megalithic Tomb at Alto de Reinoso (Burgos, Spain)
• Understanding Final Neolithic communities in south-eastern Poland: New insights on diet and mobility from isotopic data
• Anthropic resource exploitation and use of the territory at the onset of social complexity in the Neolithic-Chalcolithic Western Pyrenees: a multi-isotope approach
• A Multi-Isotope Investigation of Human and Dog Mobility and Diet in the Pre-Colonial Antilles
• Sourcing nonnative mammal remains from Dos Mosquises Island, Venezuela: new multiple isotope evidence
• Mobile animal management in the Mediterranean: Investigating Hellenistic (323-31 BCE) husbandry practices in Thessaly, Greece using δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr recorded from sheep and goat tooth enamel
• Coalescing traditions—Coalescing people: Community formation in Pannonia after the decline of the Roman Empire
• Isotopic evidence for residential mobility of farming communities during the transition to agriculture in Britain
• Lombards on the Move – An Integrative Study of the Migration Period Cemetery at Szólád, Hungary
• Results of Stable Isotopes from Körtik Tepe Southeastern Turkey
• Isotopic evidences regarding migration at the archaeological site of Praia da Tapera: New data to an old matter
• Isotopic uniformity and segregation in Tongan mounds
• Isotopic Evidence for Early Trade in Animals between Old Kingdom Egypt and Canaan
• Pastoralist Mobility in Bronze Age Landscapes of Northern Kazakhstan: ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O Analyses of Human Dentition from Bestamak and Lisakovsk
• An unusual community in death – Mortuary practices of the Balaton-Lasinja culture in the light of bioarchaeological analyses
• Resource utilisation and regional interaction in protohistoric Cambodia – The evidence from Angkor Borei
• Assessing Human Diet and Movement in the Tongan Maritime Chiefdom Using Isotopic Analyses
• Dynamics of Indian Ocean Slavery Revealed through Isotopic Data from the Colonial Era Cobern Street Burial Site, Cape Town, South Africa (1750-1827)
• The Bandkeramik settlement of Vaihingen an der Enz, Kreis Ludwigsburg (Baden-Württemberg): an integrated perspective on land use, economy and diet
• A matter of months: High precision migration chronology of a Bronze Age female
• Social differentiation and land use at an Early Iron Age “princely seat”: bioarchaeological investigations at the Glauberg (Germany)
• The First New Zealanders? An Alternative Interpretation of Stable Isotope Data from Wairau Bar, New Zealand
• The Oldest Case of Decapitation in the New World (Lapa do Santo, East-Central Brazil)
• A distinct section of the early bronze age society? Stable isotope investigations of burials in settlement pits and multiple inhumations of the Únětice culture in central Germany
• Strontium isotope evidence for long-distance immigration into the Byzantine port city of Aila, modern Aqaba, Jordan
• Prehistoric migration in Melanesia: Evidence from isotope, trace element and non-metric dentral trait analyses
• 2014, Early neolithic lifeways in Moravia and Western Slovakia - Comparing archaeological, osteological and isotopic data from cemetery and settlement burials of the linearbandkeramik (LBK)