Radiocarbon measurements in the Indian Ocean aboard RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer

Abstract

Research Vessel Icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer departed Cape Town, South Africa, on May 3, 1996, to complete the Indian Ocean portion of the "S04" line, a circumnavigation of Antarctica that was part of the US contribution to the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE). The WOCE Line S04I voyage ended at Hobart, Tasmania, on July 4, 1996, following completion of 108 stations, despite suspension of science operations for seven days on June 8, when the Palmer was diverted to deliver emergency food supplies to Russia's Mirny Station in the Davis Sea. During this extreme south cruise, with Thomas Whitworth III (Texas A&M University) and James H. Swift (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) as co-chief scientists, a total of 816 radiocarbon samples were collected by author Key at 31 stations, and these samples were later analyzed by author McNichol at the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.