Abstract
PARTICULATE matter in the waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence, a major marginal sea, contains as much as 16,500 p.p.m. manganese. This is comparable with the levels of manganese found in deep-sea sediments1. Here we show that it is possibly a related phenomenon. Suspended particulate matter was collected by filtration on 0.4-µm Nucleopore filters on a series of six stations along the axis of the Laurentian Trough. The samples were digested in a Teflon bomb with a mixture of aqua regia and hydrofluoric acid, and analysed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry2. Figure 1 shows a typical vertical profile of the concentration of suspended particulate matter and its content of manganese. The manganese content increases rapidly with depth to a maximum value of 16,500 p.p.m. at 40–120 m above the bottom. The profiles are similar for the two cruises.
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SUNDBY, B. Manganese-rich particulate matter in a coastal marine environment. Nature 270, 417–419 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/270417a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/270417a0
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