Concentration of Trace Metals in sediment collected from the Sabrina Coast Continental Slope - core C012-PC05

Trace metal concentrations are reported in micrograms per gram of sediment in core C012-PC05 (64⁰ 40.517’ S, 119⁰ 18.072’ E, water depth 3104 m). Each sediment sample (100-200mg) was ground using a pestle and mortar and digested following an initial oxidation step (1:1 mixture of H2O2 and HNO3 acid) and open vessel acid on a 150 degree C hotplate using 2:5:1 mixture of concentrated distilled HCl, HNO3 and Baseline Seastar HF acid. After converting the digested sample to nitric acid, an additional oxidation step was performed with 1:1 mixture of concentrated distilled HNO3 and Baseline Seastar HClO4 acid. A 10% aliquot of the final digestion was sub-sampled for trace metal analyses.

Trace metal concentrations were determined by external calibration using an ELEMENT 2 sector field ICP-MS from Thermo Fisher Scientific (Bremen, Germany) at Central Science Laboratory (University of Tasmania). The following elements were analysed in either low (LR) or medium resolution (MR): Sr88(LR), Y89(LR), Mo95(LR), Ag107(LR), Cd111(LR), Cs133(LR), Ba137(LR), Nd146(LR), Tm169(LR), Yb171(LR), Tl205(LR), Pb208(LR), Th232(LR), U238(LR), Na23(MR), Mg24(MR), Al27(MR), P31(MR), S32(MR), Ca42(MR), Sc45(MR), Ti47(MR), V51(MR), Cr52(MR), Mn55(MR), Fe56(MR), Co59(MR), Ni60(MR), Cu63(MR), Zn66(MR).