Temporal changes of ¹³⁷Cs concentrations in the Far Eastern Seas: partitioning of ¹³⁷Cs between overlying waters and sediments.

ABSTRACT: Deep-ocean sediments, similarly to seawater, are important reservoirs of ¹³⁷Cs, an anthropogenic radionuclide with a relatively long half-live found in the Earth system. To better understand the geochemical behaviour of ¹³⁷Cs in the ocean, we examined the temporal changes of ¹³⁷Cs activity concentrations in the overlying waters and in sediments from the Far Eastern Seas (Sea of Japan, SOJ, and Okhotsk Sea, OS) during the period of 1998-2021. The ¹³⁷Cs activity levels showed exponential changes during the observed period. The decay-corrected change rates of ¹³⁷Cs in deep waters of SOJ exhibited a slow increase, while ¹³⁷Cs levels in seawater and sediment in OS decreased gradually. This reflects a topographical difference, as

SUBMITTER: Hirose K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10752905 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature