Isotopes of lanthanum

Naturally occurring lanthanum (₅₇La) is composed of one stable (¹³⁹La) and one radioactive (¹³⁸La) isotope, with the stable isotope, ¹³⁹La, being the most abundant (99.91% natural abundance). There are 39 radioisotopes that have been characterized, with the most stable being ¹³⁸La, with a half-life of 1.02×10¹¹ years; ¹³⁷La, with a half-life of 60,000 years and ¹⁴⁰La, with a half-life of 1.6781 days. The remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than a day and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 1 minute. This element also has 12 nuclear isomers, the longest-lived of which is ^132mLa, with a half-life of 24.3 minutes. Lighter isotopes mostly decay to isotopes of barium and heavy ones mostly decay to isotopes of cerium. ¹³⁸La can decay to both.

The isotopes of lanthanum range in atomic weight from 115.96 u (¹¹⁶La) to 154.96 u (¹⁵⁵La).