Distribution of artificial radionuclides in deep sediments of the Mediterranean Sea

Artificial radionuclides enter the Mediterranean Sea mainly through atmospheric deposition following nuclear weapons tests and the Chernobyl accident, but also through the river discharge of nuclear facility effluents. Previous studies of artificial radionuclides impact of the Mediterranean Sea have focussed on shallow, coastal sediments. However, deep sea sediments have the potential to store and accumulate pollutants, including artificial radionuclides. Deep sea marine sediment cores were collected from Mediterranean Sea abyssal plains (depth >2000 m) and analysed for (239,240)Pu and (137)Cs to elucidate the concentrations, inventories and sources of these radionuclides in the deepest areas of the Mediterranean. The activity - depth profiles of (210)Pb, together with (14)C dating, indicate that sediment mixing redistributes the artificial radionuclides within the first 2.5 cm of the sedimentary column. The excess (210)Pb inventory was used to normalize (239,240)Pu and (137)Cs inventories for variable sediment fluxes. The (239,240)Pu/(210)Pb(xs) ratio was uniform across the entire sea, with a mean value of 1.24x10(-3), indicating homogeneous fallout of (239,240)Pu. The (137)Cs/(210)Pb(xs) ratio showed differences between the eastern (0.049) and western basins (0.030), clearly significant impact of deep sea sediments from the Chernobyl accident. The inventory ratios of (239,240)Pu/(137)Cs were 0.041 and 0.025 in the western and eastern basins respectively, greater than the fallout ratio, 0.021, showing more efficient scavenging of (239,240)Pu in the water column and major sedimentation of (137)Cs in the eastern basin. Although areas with water depths of >2000 m constitute around 40% of the entire Mediterranean basin, the sediments in these regions only contained 2.7% of the (239,240)Pu and 0.95% of the (137)Cs deposited across the Sea in 2000. These data show that the accumulation of artificial radionuclides in deep Mediterranean environments is much lower than predicted by other studies from the analysis of continental shelf sediments.