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14C Profiles in the Norwegian and Greenland Seas by Conventional and AMS Measurements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Reidar Nydal ,
Jorunn Gislefoss ,
Ingunn Skjelvan ,
Fred Skogseth ,
A. J. T. Jull  and
D. J. Donahue
Reidar Nydal
Affiliation:
Radiological Dating Laboratory, The Norwegian Institute of Technology, N-7034 Trondheim NTH Norway
Jorunn Gislefoss
Affiliation:
Radiological Dating Laboratory, The Norwegian Institute of Technology, N-7034 Trondheim NTH Norway
Ingunn Skjelvan
Affiliation:
Radiological Dating Laboratory, The Norwegian Institute of Technology, N-7034 Trondheim NTH Norway
Fred Skogseth
Affiliation:
Radiological Dating Laboratory, The Norwegian Institute of Technology, N-7034 Trondheim NTH Norway
A. J. T. Jull
Affiliation:
Arizona-NSF Accelerator Facility for Radioisotope Analysis, The University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
D. J. Donahue
Affiliation:
Arizona-NSF Accelerator Facility for Radioisotope Analysis, The University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
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Abstract

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CO2 in the atmosphere is an important climate gas because of its absorption of infrared radiation. More knowledge about CO2 uptake in the ocean is of critical significance in predicting future climate development. For a period of approximately 30 years, radioactive carbon from nuclear tests has been a very useful tracer in CO2 exchange studies. Up to now, the measurements have been based mainly on the conventional counting technique with large CO2 samples (ca. 5 liters). Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) with small CO2 samples (1–2 ml) has made sampling much easier, and has especially stimulated the use of 14C as a tracer in the ocean.

At higher latitudes, the ocean acts as a sink for CO2. In addition to Δ14C measurements, we are concerned here with dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and δ13C in the Norwegian and Greenland Seas. During cruises in 1989 and 1990, we obtained several Δ14C profiles, and also repeated a few GEOSECS profiles taken in 1972. The shape of these profiles changes with time, and provides information about the mixing rate and the age of the deep water. From changes in the profiles, it appears that the deep water in the Greenland Sea has obtained about 25% of the 14C concentration in the ocean surface over a period of 25 years. The Norwegian Sea deepwater is estimated to be 50–100 years older than that of the Greenland Sea.

Type
III. Global 14C Production and Variation
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 34 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 14th International Radiocarbon Conference , 1992 , pp. 717 - 726
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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