Chemical oceanographic section study of dissolved barium in the western Indian Ocean

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Section profile of dissolved barium along the Arabian Sea to the Antarctic Ocean in the western Indian Ocean region covering the entire water depth was investigated through the Japanese-GEOTRACES study. In the barium vs silicate/nitratediagram, there shows the linear relationship between barium and silicate/nitrate ratio, and the slope is almost equal to that obtained in the Eastern Indian Ocean. Vertical distributions of barium in pore waters in sediment cores from the same transect were also measured. Particularly, in the Arabian Sea where higher bariumconcentrations in the bottom water were obtained, pore water barium concentrations in the top few cm were very much higher than the solubility of barite. It is suggested that the upward diffusive flux of barium beyond the sediment-water interface due to this concentration difference between in the bottom and pore waters maintain the higher bariumbottom water in the Arabian Sea.