DISTRIBUIION OF COPPER AND ZINC IN SEA WATER (1) 



By YOSHIMI MORITA 



Chemical Institute, Faculty of Scieyice 

 Nagoya University, Jajxin 



The contents of copper and zinc in the sea water have been repeat- 

 edly determined by many investigators. However, many of the data 

 so far obtained are unfortunately unreHable, owing partly to defects 

 in the methods and their application and partly to contamination from 

 the metallic sampler used and often from insufficient care in handling 

 collected samples. 



Previously the author developed a procedure in which such defects 

 and contamination can be avoided. He examined 21 samples of the 

 surface waters from Tokyo Bay and Ise Bay (1). 



Although these waters looked to be contaminated more or less by 

 land drainage, their contents in copper and zinc were found far smaller 

 than the values ever reported. Also it was noticed that their values 

 decreased from the head of the bay towards its mouth, seemingly in 

 parallel with contamination. 



Naturally we are forced to expect that the far distant waters, free 

 from the effect of land, will give smallest values and the copper value 

 will drop probably below 1 /Ag/1. 



Thus the study was extended along this line. First, the surface 

 waters of the "Kuroshio" area were examined in May, 1951 on board 

 No. 5 Kaiyo-maru, a surveying boat of the Hydrographic Office, Mari- 

 time Safety Agency, while at the second time the vertical distribution 

 was determined in Sagami Bay and Suruga Bay in February, 1953, on 

 board Umitaka-maru of the Tokyo University of Fisheries. 



For collecting surface water a glass sampler was used, which had 

 previously been thoroughly cleaned with special care; while for deep 

 water sampling an Eckmann type sampler, coated with acrylic resin, 

 was devised, taking into consideration that the trials by previous inves- 

 tigators, who used a metallic sampler, failed in getting a satisfactory 

 result, due to probable contamination from the instrument. The deter- 

 mination was carried out by mixed-colour colorimetric titration with 

 dithizone (2). 



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