Transport and deposition of plutonium in the ocean: evidence from Gulf of Mexico sediments

A study of sediments in the Gulf of Mexico shows dramatic gradients in Pu content and isotope ratios from the continental shelf to the Sigsbee Abyssal Plain. In terms of predicted direct fallout inventory of Pu, one shelf core contains 745% of the predicted inventory, while abyssal plain sediments contain only 15–20% of the predicted value. Absolute Pu concentrations of shelf sediments are also conspicuously high, up to 110 dpm/kg, compared to 13.5 dpm/kg in Mississippi River suspended sediment. There is no evidence of Pu remobilization in Gulf of Mexico shelf sediments, based on comparison of Pu profiles with Mn/Al and Fe/Al profiles. Horizontal transport of fallout nuclides from the open ocean to removal sites in ocean margin sediments is concluded to be the source of both the high concentrations and high inventories of Pu reported here.The shelf sediments show²⁴⁰Pu/²³⁹Pu ratios close to 0.179, the average stratospheric fallout value, but the ratios decrease progressively across the Gulf to low values of 0.06 in abyssal plain sediments. The source of low-ratio Pu in deep-water sediments may be debris from low yield tests transported in the troposphere. Alternatively, it may represent a fraction of the Pu from global stratospheric fallout which has been separated in the water column from the remainder of the Pu in the ocean. In either case, the low-ratio material must have been removed rapidly to the sea floor where it composes a major fraction of the Pu in abyssal plain sediments. Pu delivered by global atmospheric fallout from the stratosphere has apparently remained for the most part in the water or has been transported horizontally and removed into shallow-water sediments.