TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6556 SUBJECT: GRB070612A: Gemini Spectroscopic Redshift DATE: 07/06/19 04:37:40 GMT FROM: S. Bradley Cenko at Caltech S. B. Cenko (Caltech), D. B. Fox, A. Cucchiara (Penn State), B. P. Schmidt (Australia National University), E. Berger (Carnegie), P. A. Price (IfA), and K. C. Roth (Gemini) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: Starting on 2007 June 17 at 06:10 UT we used GMOS on the Gemini North telescope to obtain a 600 s spectrum of the afterglow + host galaxy of GRB 070612A (Grupe et al., GCN 6509). The spectrum was taken in twilight at very high airmass (~ 3.2) and covers the wavelength range ~ 4000-8120 A. We find a strong, broad (~ 10 A) emission line at ~ 6229 A that, based on the lack any blueward emission features, we identify as [O II] 3727 at z=0.617. We also notice another possible emission feature at the very red edge of our spectrum corresponding to H-beta at the same redshift. No other features are detected either in emission nor in absorption. We note that this redshift is significantly larger than the original SDSS photometric redshift (z ~ 0.1) noted by Cenko, Ofek, and Fox (GCN 6525), and is more consistent with the larger redshift (z ~ 0.4) noted by Malesani et al. (GCN 6555). The larger distance would naturally explain the faintness of any associated SN emission, as noted by these authors. We wish to thank and acknowledge the effort of the staff at Gemini North in undertaking these difficult observations.