Thorium adsorption in the ocean: reversibility and distribution amongst particle sizes

Experiments have been carried out to determine whether the adsorption of Th by marine suspended particles is a reversible process. The results indicate reversibility on a time scale of hours. The distribution of Th between the 'dissolved' state (<0.22 μm particle size) and various particle size fractions has been compared with predictions based on a hyperbolic size distribution of marine particles assuming spherical geometry and surface adsorption. Thorium is present in small particles to a much smaller degree than such a model would predict, so that the use of 1 μm pore size filters to separate 'dissolved' and 'particulate' Th does not introduce serious errors. The implications of these results on the reversible exchange model of Bacon and Anderson (1982) and on the settling model of Tsunogai and Minagawa (1978) are discussed. (author)