Abstract
VERY little is known about the marine geochemistry of dissolved titanium, mainly because of the difficulties involved in the analysis of this highly refractory element at the extremely low levels present in sea water. Recent advances in analytical instrumentation using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry have lowered trace-element detection limits (particularly for refractory metals) to levels that occur naturally1,2. Titanium is relatively abundant in the Earth's crust (0.57% by weight3), yet its concentration in sea water is extremely low. Here we present measurements of titanium profiles in the open ocean. Dissolved titanium is found to be a reactive short-residence-time element, with a unique and highly non-uniform spatial distribution. Dissolved titanium is depleted in surface waters and enriched in deep waters, with a range of more than two orders of magnitude, and there are several indications that it is scavenged (removed by biotic or abiotic processes). This unusual oceanic distribution makes titanium potentially useful as a new tracer of chemical transport processes in deep waters.
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Orians, K., Boyle, E. & Bruland, K. Dissolved titanium in the open ocean. Nature 348, 322–325 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/348322a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/348322a0
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