Edward D. Goldberg

The Mussel Watch

The levels of four sets of pollutants (heavy-metals, artificial radionuclides, petroleum components, and halogenated hydrocarbons), have been measured in U.S. coastal waters, using bivalves as sentinel organisms. The strategies of carrying out this programme are outlined and the results from the first years work are given. Varying degrees of pollution in U.S. coastal waters have been indicated by elevated levels of pollutants in the bivalves, which comprised certain species of mussels and oysters and were collected at over one hundred localities.

Airborne dust collected at Barbados

Abstract Wind-borne dust collections have been made on the island of Barbados; and the day by day amounts have been recorded for several months, commencing August 1965. From mineralogical and biological examinations, this dust is most likely to be derived from the European-African continents. The fungus and magnetic contents of the dust show a marked seasonal variation in accordance with the shift in wind patterns off the African coast. The average concentration of this dust is about 5 × 10−12 cm3 per cm3 of air and making plausible estimates for the fallout rate, its contribution to the deep sea sedimentation of the western tropical Atlantic is about 0·6 mm/1000 yr, suggesting that a goodly fraction of the deep sea clay is indeed wind transported. The size distribution of the Barbados dust, which is mainly below 20 μ, can be argued into agreement with the distribution in the Atlantic sediments. Both the dusts and the deep-sea sediments have similar mineral compositions. The finding of dolomite in the Barbados dusts has led to an explanation of its occurrence in the Atlantic deposits and to a discovery of a dolomite gradient across the ocean. Along with various marine organisms and a great number of fungus hyphae, fresh water diatoms, in particular Melosira granulata, occur in all the Barbados dusts. This diatom is found in Atlantic sediments; and previous studies indicated that in certain core sections it is present in abundance. Occasionally Denticula elegans is also found and, since this fresh water diatom only inhabits cold running waters, there is strong indication that the dusts arriving at Barbados could have come, in part and at various times, from a mountainous region.

Pollution history of Narragansett Bay as recorded in its sediments

The heavy metal pollution history of Narragansett Bay is recorded in its sediments. Box cores, taken at three locations, indicated that the deposits built up through particle by particle accumulation. Time frames in the sedimentary column were introduced through 210Pb and plutonium chronologies and through the appearance of a shell layer in one of the cores which appears to be associated with a 1954 hurricane. The natural metal fluxes in Narragansett Bay are similar to those for the California Basins but the anthropogenic metal fluxes are an order of magnitude greater. Finally, elemental carbon in the forms of coal, coke and charcoal was observed in the sediments at concentrations up to 2% by dry weight and is probably related to leakages from transportation and combustion of fuels.

Pesticides: Transatlantic Movements in the Northeast Trades

Concentrations of chlorinated hydrocarbons in airborne dust carried by the trade winds from the European-African land areas to Barbados range from less than 1 to 164 parts per billion. The lower limit of the average content of 1 cubic meter of air is 7.8 x 10-14 gram. The contributions of river-borne and atmospherically transported pesticides to parts of the marine environment are calculated approximately and comtpared. The amnounts of pesticides contributed to the tropical Atlantic by the trade winds appear to be comparable to those carried to the sea by major river systems.

Mercury in a Greenland Ice Sheet: Evidence of Recent Input by Man

The increased mercury content in a Greenland ice sheet over the last several decades suggests the dissemination of this element about the earths atmosphere through the activities of man. The mercury content in the atmosphere appears to result primarily from the degassing of the earths crust. Increased flux may come about as a result of the enhancement of this degassing process through the actions of man.

Colloid aggregation in seawater

Aggregation of small colloids (< 0.2 μm) is common in ocean waters and leads to agglomerates that are several microns in size. These aggregates are the most abundant macroparticles (1.0 μm) in mid-depth and deep waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with concentrations in the order of 105 colloid aggregates ml−1. The fractal structures of these aggregates are characteristic of both reaction-limited and diffusion-limited processes, indicating that colloidal dynamics vary widely in seawater. Aggregation can greatly enhance the involvement of marine colloidal matter in biological and sedimentation processes.

Morphologies and Origin of Elemental Carbon in the Environment

Carbon particles extracted from sediments collected by box coring from southeastern Lake Michigan were compared with carbon particles extracted from oil, coal, and wood fly ash. Sediments deposited after 1900 contained coal, oil, and wood carbons; older sediments contained only wood carbon.

The sediments of the northern Indian Ocean

Abstract The solid phases from surface sediments, atmospheric dusts, and rivers of the Indian Ocean environment have been analyzed for their clay minerals and quartz. Such data have been used to delimit the transport paths and sources of the detrital minerals in the oceanic deposits. Diagnostic in distinguishing fluvial and eolian inputs to the northern Indian Ocean is a combination of the clay mineral assemblages and of their geographic distributions. River borne solids are the primary components of the Bay of Bengal deposits. The eastern part receives its continental input through the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system, while drainage of the Indian Peninsula by rivers introduces solids to the western part. The former materials are characterized by high illite and chlorite in the clay mineral assemblages; the latter by montmorillonite. The winds over the Bay bear distinctive dust burdens based upon their directions. However, their contributions to the sediments are insignificant. The eastern sector of the Arabian Sea receives major contributions of continental debris from the rivers and the high montmorillonite levels clearly indicate a source in the Indian Peninsula. The rest of the Sea appears to receive most of its land-derived materials from the north, perhaps the desert regions of northern India and West Pakistan, and they are wind-borne. These materials are also transported to the equatorial regions of the Indian Ocean. A gradient in attapulgite, just north of the equator, may indicate an eolian contribution to the Arabian Sea from the African continent. The halogenated hydrocarbon pesticides were assayed in the southwest monsoon winds and enter the Bay of Bengal at levels of a half ton per month, an amount comparable to those introduced by other wind and river systems to the marine environment.

The chemical composition of a Greenland glacier

Abstract Chemical analyses on water from dated strata of a south Greenland permanent ice sheet revealed that there is a larger amount of sulfate in samples accumulated during the past decade than in those 60 or more years older. This increase is attributed to combustion of fossil fuel. With the exception of mercury, cadmium and possibly copper, the heavy metal distributions in the glacial waters are similar to those in atmospheric dusts. Previously reported higher mercury values in recently deposited strata were not confirmed.

Thorium and uranium isotopes in seawater and sediments

Abstract Thorium concentrations in three open Pacific Ocean water samples had values of n × 10 −10 grams/liter , concentrations similar to those previously measured in the Atlantic. Radioactive disequilibrium exists between the dissolved forms of 228 Th and 232 Th and the dissolved, excess unsupported 228 Th apparently is introduced by the input of 228 Ra from the particulate phases containing 232 Th. The 230 Th/ 232 Th ratios in seawater are similar to those taken from the surface sediments in the same area. Differences in the 230 Th/ 232 Th ratios in barite and foraminifera extracted from the same levels in sediments are suggestive of differences in the ratio between surface and deep ocean waters.