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School of Engineering and Science - Jacobs University

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~0.2 μm (Sholkovitz, 1995). The result <strong>of</strong> this process is that more than ~70% <strong>of</strong> the<br />

10 3 times<br />

more REY than ambient seawater, the metal-oxides that precipitate from them<br />

ultimately act as sinks for seawater REY (German et al., 1990; German et al., 1991a).<br />

Pore waters within marine sediments are less well studied than either river or<br />

estuarine waters, <strong>and</strong> REE data are available for only a h<strong>and</strong>ful <strong>of</strong> sites worldwide (see<br />

Fig. 5 caption for details). Pore waters within marine sediments display strong<br />

variations in both REE concentrations <strong>and</strong> normalized REE patterns as a function <strong>of</strong><br />

depth below the seawater-sediment interface (Elderfield <strong>and</strong> Sholkovitz, 1987; Haley et<br />

al., 2004). Though data are few, it appears that increased REE concentrations in pore<br />

waters are related to redox cycling <strong>of</strong> Fe in the upper few centimeters <strong>of</strong> the sediment<br />

(Elderfield <strong>and</strong> Sholkovitz, 1987), as well the degradation <strong>of</strong> organic matter (Haley et<br />

al., 2004). It also appears that pore water fluxes may be a significant source <strong>of</strong> REE to<br />

seawater; however, the variability in REE patterns <strong>and</strong> higher concentrations found in<br />

pore waters are generally not observed in seawater sampled a few meters above the<br />

seawater-sediment interface (Elderfield <strong>and</strong> Sholkovitz, 1987; Haley et al., 2004),<br />

implying that REE sourced from pore waters may be rapidly scavenged from oxic<br />

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