Lead-210 in the circumpolar South Atlantic

• Published in: Deep Sea Research Part A. Oceanographic Research Papers
• Main Authors: Farley, K. A., Turekian, K. K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 1990
• Subjects: Ajax; Southern Ocean; Weddell; Weddell Sea
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/0198-0149(90)90081-6

^(210)Pb activity in circumpolar waters of the South Atlantic is characterized by a sharply defined maximum at intermediate to shallow depths that is strongly correlated with the oxygen minimum. This feature, present throughout the Southern Ocean, is most likely locally maintained rather than advected from elsewhere. The highest ^(210)Pb activities in this region occur in the northern Weddell Sea, indicating a source of ^(210)Pb-rich water in the west or north flank of the Weddell Sea Gyre. An estimate of the (^(210)Pb) deficiency relative to (^(226)Ra) shows that despite high biological productivity, the sediments underlying the Southern Ocean are not a major sink for ^(210)Pb. © 1990 Pergamon Press. Received 19 January 1990; in revised form 16 July 1990; accepted 31 July 1990. Glen Shen and other members of the Ajax expedition carefully sampled the water into our acidified bottles and guaranteed transfer to us. H. Craig provided helpful comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by DOE grant no. DE-FGO2-87ER60595.