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SEATTLE 5. WASHINGTON'

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DEPAP.TI:El1T OF OCEANOGRAPI~.Y

Seatt1e~ Hashin~ton 98105

Technical Reports

Nos. 2l4~ 215, 216, 217)

218, 219, and 220

A COl~ILATION OF ARTICLES r~PORTING RESEARCH

SPO;:TSORED JOINTLY TIY

THE u. s. ATm·~IC ENEP..GY CO; IT ~SSIOI':

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TIIE OFFICE OF 'NAVAL RESEA~C7.~

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andOffice of l1aval ?esearchContracts Nonr-477(37)

and ~';onr-477(10)

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j1 YJ[(, 1?11~'1)-'"

CL ORD A. UAr~~ES

Principal Investigator

Reproduction in whole or in part is permittedfor any purpose of the United States Government

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ARTICLES REPORTING RESEARCH SP01~SORED JOIi.~TLY BY THEU. S. ATOHIC ENERGY COljj:lISSION AdD TIlE OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH

Technical Report No. 214

SERGESTES SIUILIS HANSEN AND S. CONSOBRIiJUS i'I. SP. (DECAPODA) FROH THENORTHEASTElli~ PACIFIC, by Darrelyn S. bilne. Crustaceana 14(1):21-34. 1968.

Technical Report No. 215

SONAR REFLECTION PROFILING ON TuE COL~illIA RIVER &~D IN LAKE WASHINGTON,by C. R. B. Lister, John T. Hhetten, and Bates HcKee. Northto1est Science41(4):152-154. 1967.

Technical Report No. 216

DISTRIBUTION Al\lD HOVEi-iENT OF RADIOACTIVE CONTINID!TAL SHELF SEDIHENT,NORTllWESTEm~ UNITED STATES, by M. Grant Gross. Collected Preprints ofthe International Sedimentological Congress. 4 p. 1967.

Technical Report ~o. 217

CONTINENTAL SHELF SEDIHEi'IT, NORTHHESTEHN Ui~ITED STATES, by H. G. Gross,D. A. Mclmnus, and H-Y Ling. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 37(3):790~795. 1967.

Technical Report No. 218

~IAZAHA ASH FROi·! Tl{E CONTINENTAL SLOPE OFF ~JASHINGTON, by Chester F. Royce,Jr. Northwest Science 41(3):103-109. 1967.

Technical Report No. 219

A DEVICE FOR RELEASING A PISTON CORER M~D DEACTIVATING THE PISTON, by JamesL. Woodruff. Deep-Sea Research 14:309-810. 1967.

Technical Report do. 220

SINKING P~TES OF RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT PARTICLES IN THE NORTH EAST PACIFICOCEAN, 1961-62, by M. Grant Gross. Nature 216(5116);670-672. 1967.

•

(Reprimed from Narure, Vol. 216, No. 5116, pp. 67<Hi72,November 18, 1967)

lJNIVERS:TY OF WASH:~~GTON -DEPARTMENT OF OC~NOGRAPHY

TECHNICAL REPORT NO. 2 2 0

Sinking Rates of Radioactive FalloutParticles in the North EastPacific Ocean, 1961-62THE resumption of nuclear weapon testing in the atmo·sphere in September 1961'1>rovided an opportunity toinvestigate the sinking rate of radioactive fallout particlesin the, North East Pacific Ocean. The stopping of weapontesting in the atmosphere between November 1958 andSeptember 1, 1961, gave sufficient time' for radionuclideswith relatively short half-lives which were released bytests before 1958 to decay• Weapon testing began in theSoviet Union on September 1, 1961, and by November 4,lQ61, at least fifty nucle~ devices had been detonated inthe atmosphere, including fifteen megaton or multimegatondevices1• In the North East Pacific Ocean, the beginning

. of the 1961 test series coincided closely with the beginningof the winter storms and their heavy rainfall. This pro­vided a mechanism for quickly depositing the falloutnuclides, rainfall being the principal mechanism forremoving such particles from the atmosphereS. Radio­active fallout material from these tests was detected inmarine samples in mid-September 1961.

The gamma-ray activity was analysed in samples o~sedimeht collected in July and August 1961 and in thesummer of 1962. No activity caused by the presence ofradionuclides from fallout was detected in thirty-ninesamples collected in 1961 (general area sampled shown inFig. 1), while twelve samples collected in June 1962 fromthis area contained detectable amounts of several radio­nuclides from fallout.

Special sediment samples were collected in August andSeptember 1962 for ana)ysis of their gamma-ray activity.These samples were collected by siphoning off the muddywater above the interface between water and sediment inopen gravity cores. I assume that the sediment particlessuspended in the water were resuspended during thecoring and retrieval operations and that this sediment wasthe most recently deposited material.

The muddy water recovered was transferred to a plasticcontainer in which it was. dried under infrared lampsaboard ship, without washing or further 'handling, to

).

1:52'

r[I

--~---r--\

- %.--+-~-.1--~

~~~f1"'46'o -+----¥<~L

o

Fig. 1. Locations of sediment samples in which fallout radionuclldeswere detected (e> a.nd not detected (0) in 1962. Sediment samplescollected In July a.nd August 1961 (area shown by horizontl1l rules) nearthe continent had no detectable quantities ofradionuclldes from fallout.

minimize contamination. When the samples were dry thecontainers were sealed and wrapped in plastic which waschanged jus~ before analysing the gamma radiation.Depending on the amount of sediment recovered, thegamma radiation was analysed for 100-1,000 min usinga 3 x 3 in. (7'6 x 7·6 em) sodium iodide (thalliwn) crystalconnected to a photomultiplier and a multichannelanalyser. The gamma-ray spectra obtained were analysedusing a computer programme which estimated theabundance ofeight radionuclides (potassiUm.-40, cobalt-60,zinc-65, zirconium-95-niobium-95, ruthenium-I03-106,bismuth-214, chromiwn-51, cerium-141) and estimated the95 per cent confidence interval based on counting stat-

2

istics3• The sample was considered to have no significantactivity if the calculated activity was equal to or lessthan the estimated -95 per cent confidence interval.

Of the various radionuclides from fallout detected, thepair zirconium-95-niobium-95 was selected as the bestfor this study because of its relative short half-life (65<rays), its abundance in fallout! and its known associationwith particles in sea water·. The apparent absence ofzirconium-95-niobium-95.in sediments collected in Julyand August 1961, just before the resumption of testing,and its presence in shallow water deposits ne~ly every­where in 1962 provides convincing evidence that theradioactivity detected was cauSed not by fallout derivedfrom earlier weapons tested nor by the misidentificationof the gamma-ray spectra of radionuclides occurringnaturally in these sediments, but by fallout p.articlesdeposited after September 1961.

In the locations nearest the continent, the radioactiveparticles could have been transported and deposited eitherby processes near the ocean floor, or by sinking throughthe overlying sea water or by both. Thus the data. forsample locations near the continent provide little informa­tion about sinking rates of the. radioactive particles.

The deepest 10caJities are apparently shielded from theaccumulation of sediment by transport along the bottomofthe ocean by the irregular bottom topography assoCiatedwith the oceanic rise and fracture zones (Fig. 1). Thusthe presence and ablmdance of fallout raclionuclides in thesediment from these areas provide information about thesinking rates of the radioactive particles.

If we assume that the first radioactive fallout arrivedin the area immediately after the testing began (September1, 1961), the radioactive particles must have settled about13 m/day to have reached a depth ot 4·4 kIn (Fig. 2)by the time the sample was collected on August 8, 1962.Even if we discard the data for the deepest stationbecause of possible contamination (for which there is noevidence) we must still assume sinking rates of at least9 m/day to account for .the radioactivity from falloutdetected in three samples from depths between 2·6 and2·9 kIn (Fig. 2). In short~ it seems that the radioactiveparticles sank at rates near 10 m/day to account for thepresence of zirconium~95-niobium·95(half-life 65 days) inthe sediment at these depths.

lt is also interesting to note that the observed decreasein activity of zirconi~-95-niobium.95 (Fig. 2) withdepth corresponds rather closely to the expected decreaseresulting from a steady state injection of fallout with theparticles sinking at a- rate of-to m/day.· This apparen~

relationship may be entirely fortuitous because it woulddemand not only a quasi steady state input of fallout

S

•

I.

Zlrconlum-95-Nioblum-96 (pc./g of dry sediment)1,0003001003010

• JULY -AUGUST 1962A SEPTEMBER 1962

......-495% CONFIDENCE INTERVAL

3

... I

4

A

..","

""""t---."~I ....... ,,"

""/ ......"" ." ..........-,.t.....,...

'""~~~\

.pI----,,-rlll'

"5 '--_-J.._-="~I__...L-__.L-_--L__.........__'___ __..

Fig. 2. Observed abundance of zirconium-96-niobium·95 in speciallycollected sediment samples taken in August-September 1962 from variousdepths in the region shown in Fig. 1. The dashed line indicates theexpeoted decrease In zlrconium·96-niobium-95 activity with depth1188umlng"a constant supply of radioactive particles sinking at a rate of10 mlday with no dilution by non·radioactive sediment after depositlon

or during sampling operations. •

,

,particles, which seems scarcely likely, but also an absenceof appreoiable dilution of the recently deposited falloutparticles by non-radioaotive sediment during depositionand during the coring operations.

I have no dat8( on the grain size, composi~ion .or densityof these radioactive particles although fallout from otherweapon tests has been studiedl,2,5,6. It is possible tocalculate the probable grain size of the radioactiveparticles, having sinking rates of 10-13 m/day, by assum­ing that the partioles are spherical, have a density of2·5 g/om3 (typioal of fused silicate glass), and obey Stokeslaw during" gravitational settling through sea water(8 = 35 p.p.t., P = 5° C). Such a calculation shows thatSo sinking rate of 10 m/day corresponds to grains 161Lin diameter, and 13 m/day corresponds to grains 181L indiameter. .

These calculated grain sizes are consistent with theknown behaviour of fallout partioles where grains lessthan about 20IL in diameter tend to be transportedprimarily by atmospherio motionsl,lI. Such grains couldeasily have been transported long distances from the testsites in the USSR and widely dispersed in the surfacelayers of the North East Pacific Ocean.

No doubt smaller particles also fell into the oceansurface layers, but my datado not provi4e any inforJ;Il8tionabout possible size distribution in the fallout. Not onlydo the larger partioles sink more rapidly but they alsohave greater activities than the smaller particles because

4

~I

.,.

•

•

&

the activity of fallout particles is proportional to thevolume of the particles. Thus the larger particles probablycontributed the bulk of the radionuclides from fallout inthese sediments when collected in 1962.

I thank A. H. Seymour, C. A. Barnes, D. A. McManus,D. E. Engstrom and the captain and crew of the R.V.Bro~ Bear for their assistance. This work was sup­ported by the US Atomic Energy Commission and theUS Office ofNaval Research.

M. GRANT GROSS

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC,and . .Department of Oceanography,University of Washington, Seattle.Received October 9. 1967.

1 Glasstone, S., in The Effects of Nuclear JYeaplmB, revisoc1 ocl. (U::; Govern­ment Printing Omce,WDshlngton, DC, 1964).

I Holland, J. Z., Fed. Proc.,22, 1890 (1963).• Chakravarti. D .• Lewis, G. B., Palumbo, R. F., and Seymour, A. H., Nature,

203, 571 (1964).• Freiling, E. c.. and Bailon, N. E., Nature, 195, 1283 (1962).I Adams. O. E .• Farlow. N. H., and ScbeU, W. R., Geochim. Connochim. Acta,

18, 42 (1960).• Sisefsky, J., Science, 133. 735 (1961).

UNIVERSITY OF WASH tNQTON

DEPT. OF OCEANOGRAPHY

CONTR Il3UTION NO, 447

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