Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Supplemental Files
• Related Publications
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Funding

This dataset presents dissolved radium isotope activities around Guaymas Basin.

Samples for this dataset were separated into different worksheets depending on the sample collection method (worksheets have been combined into one dataset; "Collection_Method" column indicates the source worksheet).

"CTD" samples were collected from 20L Niskin bottles associated with CTD casts by slowly (<1 L/min) draining the sample via a sampling tube from the spigot on the Niskin bottle through a dry, 25 g aliquot of acrylic fiber impregnated with MnO2 (Moore, 1976). These "Mn fibers" quantitatively sorb Ra isotopes from the aqueous phase.

"Core-top waters" were collected by gravity siphoning water overlying sediment cores that were collected as push cores by HOV Alvin, filtering the samples through 0.45 um cellulose filters, then slowly (< 1 L/min) passing the effluent over 25 g Mn fiber.

"Alvin Slurp" samples were collected using the slurp gun on HOV Alvin. These sample waters were stored onboard Alvin until they were recovered on the ship and slowly (< 1 L/min) passed over 25 g Mn fiber.

Finally, "Alvin Niskins" were recovered from one or several of the 1.25 L Niskin bottles on Alvin. On the ship, these water samples were drained from the Niskin bottles and slowly (<1 L/min) passed over 25 g Mn fiber. 

After passing the water samples over the Mn fibers, the fibers were rinsed with Ra-free fresh water, then dried using a compressed air stream to a suitable humidity (Sun and Torgersen, 1998). The fibers were then counted immediately on a Radium Delayed Coincidence Counter (Moore and Arnold, 1996) for total Ra-224 and Ra-223 activity. The fibers were counted again after 3 weeks to measure the supported Ra-224 activity from any sorbed Th-228 on the fibers. This activity is subtracted from the total Ra-224 activity derived from the initial measurement to compute the excess Ra-224 activity (the activity reported in the dataset). Ra-226 activities were measured by sealing the Mn fibers in air-tight cartridges for ~1 week and measuring the accumulated Rn-222 (daughter product of Ra-226) on a radon emanation line (Peterson et al., 2009). Fibers were then counted an additional time on the Radium Delayed Coincidence Counter after ~1 year from collection for Ra-228 (as the change in Th-228 activity from the 3-week measurement; Moore, 2008). Analytical uncertainties are based on counting statistics (as 1-s standard deviation of the total counts logged, propagated through the activity computations).

BCO-DMO Processing:
- modified parameter names (changed hyphens to underscores; replaced spaces with underscores);
- formatted date/time to ISO 8601 format;
- concatenated data from the 4 separate worksheets into one;
- saved Radium Delayed Coincidence Counter calibrations as PDF - see Supplemental Files.

NSF Award Abstract:
This project proposes to validate a new approach to measure porewater flow dynamics from deep sea sediments using a biologically conservative, naturally-occurring tracer, Radium 224, which is constantly produced by porewaters. The technique will be validated using independent measures of porewater fluxes (i.e. heat gradients and magnesium profiles) during a cruise to the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California that is already funded by NSF. Once validated the technique will be broadly applicable to all sedimentary environments including oceans, rivers/streams, wetlands and lakes. Understanding porewater flow dynamics is important to understanding ocean and other aquatic system chemical budgets, microbial ecology and global heat flow.

This proposal hypothesizes that the short-lived radium isotope Ra 224 may serve as an effective tracer of porewater flows in deep ocean systems, regardless of the type or composition of seepages, because its sources and sinks can be uniquely constrained. The method will be tested in the Guaymas Basin which is comprised of areas undergoing a range of seepage rates and offers porewater thermal gradients resulting from the hydrothermal system. As a result heat fluxes and gradients in magnesium and other cations affected by high-temperature water/rock interactions can be used to independently validate the porewater flows measured by Ra 224.