Table 4 

 Solubility of Individual Hydrocarbons at 25.0°C in Distilled and Seawater. 



Sutton and Calder, 1974, 1975; Eganhouse and Calder, 1975 



waters. Concentrations of dissolved non-polar hydrocarbons extracted 

 from waters taken at several stations and depths in the Gulf of Mexico 

 and Caribbean Sea ranged from traces to 75 ppb, with the highest oc- 

 curring in the Florida Strait. These concentrations were determined 

 gravimetrically. In all cases except in the Florida Strait, this fraction 

 was characterized by relatively large amounts of n-alkanes having 

 between 15 and 20 carbon atoms and relatively small amounts of 

 n-alkanes with more than 20 carbon atoms. In the Florida Strait there 

 were much higher concentrations of n-alkanes above C20 (Table 5). 

 There was an unresolved envelope in the gas chromatograms of all 

 the samples that extended approximately from the C13 to the C.q posi- 

 tion, wdth the maximum between C^jo and C^^ positions (Iliffe & Calder, 

 1974). While these are fairly high values, they are still below the 

 solubility values. In a later study, additional samples were collected 

 from the Florida Strait and filtered through pre-combusted Whatman 

 GF/F filters. The compositional features of the dissolved non-polar 



21 



