Title: Redox behavior of uranium in an anoxic marine basin
Abstract: Concentrations of total U and the oxidation state of dissolved U were measured throughout the water column in the Cariaco Trench. There was no indication of rapid U removal at the O/sub 2/-H/sub 2/S interface, and bottom waters were depleted in U by only )similarreverse arrowto) 10% relative to open-ocean seawater. Throughout the water column uranium occurred as soluble chemically labile (reducible) U(VI). Two independent methods gave residence times of U in the anoxic water column of 1.0 x 10/sup 3/ and 1.6 x 10/sup 3/ yr., respectively, 200-400 times less than the residence time of U in the ocean as a whole. Distributions of uranium in sediments suggest that the mechanism removing uranium from the water column involves diffusion of U(VI) into the sediments where it is slowly reduced to U(IV) and precipitated over a zone covering several centimeters below the sediment-water interface. 40 refs.;6 figs.;4 tabs
Publication Year: 1987
Publication Date: 1987-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 90
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