Precise determination of the open ocean 234U/238U composition

Abstract

Uranium has a long residence time in the open oceans, and therefore, its salinity-normalized U concentration and 234U/238U activity ratio (expressed herein as δ234U, the ‰ deviation from secular equilibrium) are assumed to be uniform. The marine 234U/ 238U activity ratio is currently in radioactive disequilibrium and shows a ∼15% excess of 234U with respect to the secular equilibrium value due to continuous input from riverine sources. Knowledge of the marine δ234U, and how it has evolved through the Quaternary, is important for validating age accuracy in the U series dating of marine carbonates, which is increasingly relied upon for providing a chronological basis in paleoclimate research. However, accurate and precise measurements of δ234U are technically difficult. Thus, existing compilations of the open ocean δ234U value vary by up to ∼10‰, and the assumed uniformity in the oceanic δ 234U remains to be confirmed. Using MC-ICPMS techniques and a suite of multiple Faraday cups instead of the typical configurations based on a combined Faraday cup-multiplier array, a long-term reproducibility of better than ±0.3‰ (2σ) is achieved for δ234U measurements. Applying these very high precision techniques to open ocean seawater samples, an average δ234U of 146.8 0.1‰ (2σm, n = 19) is obtained. These high-precision seawater measurements yield an external reproducibility of better than ±0.4‰ (2σ) and show that the open oceans have a uniform δ234U on the sub-‰ level. These new data constrain the vertical mixing time of the open oceans to less than 1000 years. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.