Article (Scientific journals)
A note on the age of radioactive tracers
Delhez, Eric; Deleersnijder, Eric; Mouchet, Anne et al.
2003In Journal of Marine Systems, 38 (3-4), p. 277-286
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Keywords :
age of seawater; radioisotope; tracer; age
Abstract :
[en] wThe age of a water mass is often estimated experimentally using the radio-age computed from the distribution of a radioactive tracer (radiocarbon, helium-tritium). Deleersnijder et al. [J. Mar. Syst. 28 (2001) 229.] have shown that the radio-age underestimates the age of the water and is larger than the age of the radioactive tracer used for its evaluation. This result is generalized here to radio-ages computed from the ratio of two radioactive tracers. The differences between the different ages are also studied analytically and numerically as functions of the decay rate of the radioactive tracers. For small decay rates, the difference between the age of the water mass and the radio-age is shown to be proportional to the decay rate. It depends also on the level of mixing in the system; even radioactive tracers with small decay rates can provide poor estimates of the age of the water mass in a strongly diffusive flow. For small half lives, both the radio-age and the age of radioactive tracers decrease as the inverse of the square root of the decay rate. The same analysis applies to some extent to the estimates of the age of a water mass from stable tracers with known time dependent sources (e.g. chloroflurocarbons). (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Research center :
MARE - Centre Interfacultaire de Recherches en Océanologie - ULiège
Disciplines :
Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Aquatic sciences & oceanology
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Delhez, Eric ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'aérospatiale et mécanique > Mathématiques générales
Deleersnijder, Eric;  Université Catholique de Louvain-La-Neuve > Unité ASTR
Mouchet, Anne ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Labo de physique atmosphérique et planétaire (LPAP)
Beckers, Jean-Marie  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Océanographie physique
Language :
English
Title :
A note on the age of radioactive tracers
Publication date :
2003
Journal title :
Journal of Marine Systems
ISSN :
0924-7963
Publisher :
Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Volume :
38
Issue :
3-4
Pages :
277-286
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 18 December 2008

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