TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 15988 SUBJECT: GRB 140318A: WHT spectroscopy DATE: 14/03/18 04:25:02 GMT FROM: Nial Tanvir at U.Leicester N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), T. Kruehler (ESO Chile), S. Schulze (PUC and MCSS), R. Karjalainen (ING) report: We observed the afterglow of GRB 140318A (Cenko et al. GCN 15986; Schulze et al. GCN 15987) with the WHT using the ACAM spectrograph, beginning March 18 02:06 UT, approximately 2 hours post-trigger. The wavelength range covered was from about 5000 AA to 9500 AA. In our provisional reduction, the continuum trace of the aftergow+host is well detected, and a single emission line is seen at ~7520 AA. It is most likely that this is OII 3727, given the absence of any other lines. We therefore infer a redshift of z=1.02, and tentatively identify this as the redshift of the burst. Further analysis is ongoing.