210Pb activities in and fluxes to sediments of the Washington continental slope and shelf

Surface sediments of the Washington coast have ²¹⁰Pb activites which average 104 ± 48dpm/g for submarine canyon and slope regimes and 18 ± 12dpm/g for the continental shelf regime. ²¹⁰Pb sedimentary fluxes are also higher in canyons, averaging 18 ± 13dpm/cm² per yr, compared to 5.2 ± 3.1 dpm/cm² per yr for slope and 4.8 ± 1.8dpm/cm² per year for shelf regions. These ²¹⁰Pb activities and fluxes are 2–7 times greater than those reported for other coastal regions. Inputs from the atmosphere and the Columbia River are not sufficient to supply the ²¹⁰Pb, but advection of seawater containing dissolved ²¹⁰Pb produced in situ from ²²⁶Ra provides an input several times larger than the sedimentary fluxes. The sedimentary ²¹⁰Pb flux is limited by scavenging reactions rather than by supply of dissolved ²¹⁰Pb.Calculations of maximum biological uptake and fluxes of ²¹⁰Pb and ‘selective’ chemical leaching experiments all show that the primary scavenging processes are due to hydrous Mn and Fe oxides rather than biological phases. The pattern of higher ²¹⁰Pb depositional fluxes in canyons than in nearby open slope areas of comparable water depth is most reasonably explained by enhanced scavenging of dissolved ²¹⁰Pb near the sea floor, rather than by processes operating throughout the water column. Relatively rapid removal of dissolved ²¹⁰Pb from the near bottom nepheloid layer to slope and canyon sediments is shown by its mean residence time of less than two years in this layer.