RARE EARTH DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

• Main Author: Spirn, Regina Volfovsky
• Other Authors: MASSACHUSETTS INST OF TECH CAMBRIDGE DEPT OF GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1965
• Subjects: Geodesy; Geology; Geochemistry and Mineralogy; *MARINE GEOLOGY; *GEOCHEMISTRY; *RARE EARTH ELEMENTS; RADIOACTIVATION ANALYSIS; INDIAN OCEAN; ANTARCTIC REGIONS; YTTRIUM; CHROMATOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS; TRACER STUDIES; SEDIMENTATION; OCEAN BOTTOM SAMPLING; ATLANTIC OCEAN; NEUTRON ACTIVATION; Antarctic; Indian; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0625347; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0625347

A procedure for determination of the rare earth elements and yttrium utilizing tracer-monitored group separation, neutron activation and carrier-free partition chromatography has been developed. Using this procedure a survey of rare earths and yttrium (=RE) abundances in different types of matter from the marine environment was made. The RE distributions in these samples and in the limited number of marine and sedimentary materials in which RE distributions had been determined previously were compared. The majority of whole-core RE distributions are rather uniform, but in core components of different genesis they are different. More than half the RE content of marine clay is apparently adsorbed on the clay particle surfaces, and the distribution of the adsorbed RE can be quite different or quite similar to that in the interior. The RE content in calcareous parts of organisms varies over more than an order of magnitude and the possibility was indicated that in fresh calcareous structures the larger part of the RE occurs in the organic components and that in sedimented old calcareous material a great part of the RE content is post-depositionally adsorbed. RE distributions in live organic matter appear to differ greatly from those in old organic remains.