Transport and burial rates of 10Be and 231Pa in the Pacific Ocean during the Holocene period

An ocean-wide study of the rates of removal of 10Be and 231Pa in the Pacific Ocean has identified intensified scavenging of the 10Be and 231Pa in several ocean margin areas, including the Northeastern and Northwestern Pacific, the Bering Sea, the Eastern Equatorial Pacific and the South Pacific Ocean. Scavenging rates of 10Be and 231Pa are clearly correlated to particle flux. Principal component analysis further suggests that scavenging of 10Be and 231Pa may be related to opal productivity in surface waters. A simple box model was constructed to partition the deposition of 230Th, 231Pa and 10Be between open ocean and ocean margin sediments. Model parameters were constrained using measured values of 230Th and 231Pa, which have a common source, and then applied to 10Be. An average Holocene 10Be deposition rate for the entire Pacific Ocean is estimated to be ∼ 1.5 × 10 6 atoms/cm 2 yr −1, with ∼ 70% of the total 10Be supplied to the Pacific being deposited in margin sediments underlying only 10% of the ocean. The short residence times of 10Be in ocean margin regions (from < 100 to ∼ 200 yr) compared to the long 10Be residence time in the central open Pacific Ocean ( ∼ 1000 yr) reflects the intensified scavenging of 10Be in ocean margin waters. The results of this study suggest that the Pacific Ocean acts as a relatively closed basin with respect to the transport and burial of 10Be; therefore, the average 10Be deposition rate in the Pacific Ocean can be used as an estimate of the global average production rate of 10Be in the atmosphere during the Holocene period.