School of Engineering and Science - Jacobs University

seawater and returned to the sediment column. In consideration of the above
observations, river waters are the dominant source of the REY to modern seawater. It
should be noted that aeolian dust also delivers REY to the oceans, but the magnitude of
this flux to dissolved REY in seawater is debated (e.g., Nakai et al., 1993; Tachikawa et
al., 1999; Greaves et al., 1999; Bayon et al., 2004), and regardless, the REY distribution
in the aeolian flux will generally reflect continental REY sources. It should be noted
that the Pacific Ocean seems atypical in this regard, as volcanic particles derived from
intraplate and circum-Pacific volcanism appear to be a significant REY source, and the
reader is referred to Goldstein and Hemming (2003) for a more thorough discussion.
Within seawater itself, the REY display consistent behavior. Figure 6 shows rare
earth element abundances and distributions from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian
oceans. All of the major world oceans have been sampled, with exceptions being the
Southern Ocean (south of 60° latitude) and the central Arctic Ocean. The available rare
earth element dataset for seawater is extensive, and approximately 900 samples
worldwide have been analyzed, with the Pacific Ocean providing the most samples
(47%), followed by the Indian (29%), Atlantic (15%), Arctic (8%), and Mediterranean
(