Deuterium variations in an annual snowpack

Abstract

Deuterium samples taken during the 1967–1968 snow year in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado indicate that metamorphism and melt of the snowpack greatly reduce the large initial variability in deuterium content of individual snowfalls. New snow values ranged from −229‰ to −106‰. D relative to SMOW (Standard Mean Ocean Water). The range in the snowpack profile on May 3, 1968, was −182 to −158. This homogenization would reduce the problems involved in following snowmelt through the hydrologic system.