New insights on the role of sea ice in intercepting atmospheric pollutants using 129I

Measurements of 129I carried out on sea ice samples collected in the central Arctic Ocean in 2007 revealed relatively high levels in the range of 100-1400×107 at L-1 that are comparable to levels measured in the surface mixed layer of the ocean at the same time. The 129I/127I ratio in sea ice is muc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine Pollution Bulletin
Main Authors: Gómez-Guzmán, J M, Cámara-Mor, P, Suzuki, T, López-Gutiérrez, J M, Mas, J L, Masqué, P, Moran, S B, Smith, J N
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia 2014
Subjects:
AMS
Arctic Ocean
Atmospheric deposition
Iodine-129
Reprocessing
Sea ice
Atmospheric movements
Iodine
Meteorological problems
Scrap metal reprocessing
Atmospheric depositions
Atmospheric pollutants
Atmospheric transport
Back trajectories
Surface mixed layers
Nuclear fuel reprocessing
iodine 129
accelerator mass spectrometry
atmospheric pollution
trajectory
volatilization
air pollutant
air pollution
Arctic
Article
concentration (parameters)
oceanic regions
pollution transport
sea surface waters
Basse Normandie
Cumbria
England
France
La Hague
Manche
Sellafield
United Kingdom
Marine Biology
Online Access:https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/147
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.10.004
Description
Summary:Measurements of 129I carried out on sea ice samples collected in the central Arctic Ocean in 2007 revealed relatively high levels in the range of 100-1400×107 at L-1 that are comparable to levels measured in the surface mixed layer of the ocean at the same time. The 129I/127I ratio in sea ice is much greater than that in the underlying water, indicating that the 129I inventory in sea ice cannot be supported by direct uptake from seawater or by iodine volatilization from proximal (nearby) oceanic regimes. Instead, it is proposed that most of the 129I inventory in the sea ice is derived from direct atmospheric transport from European nuclear fuel reprocessing plants at Sellafield and Cap La Hague. This hypothesis is supported by back trajectory simulations indicating that volume elements of air originating in the Sellafield/La Hague regions would have been present at arctic sampling stations coincident with sampling collection.

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