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Sinking Rates of Radioactive Fallout Particles in the North East Pacific Ocean, 1961–62

Abstract

THE resumption of nuclear weapon testing in the atmosphere in September 1961 provided an opportunity to investigate the sinking rate of radioactive fallout particles in the North East Pacific Ocean. The stopping of weapon testing in the atmosphere between November 1958 and September 1, 1961, gave sufficient time for radionuclides with relatively short half-lives which were released by tests before 1958 to decay. Weapon testing began in the Soviet Union on September 1, 1961, and by November 4, 1961, at least fifty nuclear devices had been detonated in the atmosphere, including fifteen megaton or multimegaton devices1. In the North East Pacific Ocean, the beginning of the 1961 test series coincided closely with the beginning of the winter storms and their heavy rainfall. This provided a mechanism for quickly depositing the fallout nuclides, rainfall being the principal mechanism for removing such particles from the atmosphere2. Radioactive fallout material from these tests was detected in marine samples in mid-September 1961.

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GROSS, M. Sinking Rates of Radioactive Fallout Particles in the North East Pacific Ocean, 1961–62. Nature 216, 670–672 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/216670a0

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