APPENDIX A 

 SALINITY CORRECTION FOR SPECIFIC GRAVITY MEASUREMENTS 



Unanimity of opinion does not exist at present on the salt content or salinity '^ of 

 interstitial waters of marine sediments. Physical measurements based on assumed oceanic 

 salinity of pore water (for example, Ratcliffe, 1960, p. 1536) may be of questionable 

 validity until the distribution of interstitial salinity is better known. Arrhenius (1952, 

 p. 78-79) reported a linear correlation between salinity and water content in deep-sea 

 Pacific and Atlantic Ocean cores. Salinity varied markedly with depth in most east 

 Pacific cores (Arrhenius, 1952, Appendix plates 1-62). Emery and Rittenberg (1952, 

 p. 803) in studies of cores from basins off Southern California found that the salinities 

 of interstitial waters were relatively constant with depth of burial . Pore water chlorin- 

 ity was slightly greater than 19 parts per thousand (p. 788-789), which represents a 

 salinity of about 35 parts per thousand — a normal oceanic value. A more variable 

 relationship of salinity to depth is reported by Shepard and Moore (1955, p. 1582) and 

 Sutton and others (1957, p. 792-793). 



Hamilton and Menard (1956, p. 755) give a formula correcting grain density, or 

 specific gravity of particles, for salt content and discuss procedure. 



'•Hhe definition of salinity is "the total amount of solid material in grams contained 

 in one kilogram of sea water when all the carbonate has been converted to oxide, the 

 bromine and iodine replaced by chlorine, and all organic matter completely oxidized" 

 (Sverdrup, and others, 1946, p. 50). Salinity, in consequence, is not strictly 

 speaking synonymous with salt content, although it is often used in synonymy. 



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