304 



THE DEEP SEA 



PROCEDURES 



ABOARD SHIP 



t 



^ 



Woter Collection 



CO2 Releose 



1! 



o;i 0^ 



• '! 



CO2 Absorption 



Yield Check 



IN THE LABORATORY 



Acidification 



75cr, 



( CaO 



450", 



i 



IMPURE 



" coa 



900»/ 



Cgi££l> *IMPURIT- 

 T lES 



CaO ^-^PUf^E 

 CO2 



Purification 



C"* Assoy 



C" Assoy 



Fig. 1. 



a common stable C^'^ concentration. The resulting AC^^ values are 

 then those we would have observ'ed if isotope fractionation did 

 not occur in nature or in the laboratory. In this case if the entire 

 ocean-atmosphere system were being mixed with infinite speed, 

 AC^"* values for all parts of the system would be the same. Since 

 mixing is not sufficiently rapid, the atmosphere which is the 

 birthplace of new C^^ atoms looks redder than the surface ocean 

 which, in turn, looks redder than the deep ocean. In terms of the 

 above scale the less red the sample the more negative its AC^'* 

 value. The pre- 1890 age corrected AC^^ \'alue for the atmosphere 

 has been chosen as the zero on the scale. 



Let us first consider the pattern of the results. Figure 2 shows 

 the coverage of surface samples analyzed at Lamont. In addition, 



