The Effect of Manganese Oxide Scavenging on Molybdenum in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia,

Abstract A simple colorimetric method was developed for determining molybdenum in seawater by solvent extraction of its dithiolate and was then applied during a nine month study of Saanich Inlet. This inlet is a fjord on the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in which the bottom waters alternate between a weakly oxygenated and anoxic state. Results are given for the concentrations of dissolved and suspended molybdenum, suspended manganese, dissolved oxygen and of salinity measurements. Salinity-molybdenum correlations demonstrate that the deep waters are deficient in molybdenum, a conclusion consistent with reports that the sediments deposited in the reducing zone are enriched with molybdenum precipitated from the anoxic bottom waters. Suspended manganese, which occurs in large amounts as a result of the oxidative precipitation of dissolved Mn(II) diffusing from anoxic waters, has a distribution that is directly correlated to that of suspended molybdenum and which tends to be inversely related to that of dissolved molybdenum, suggesting that molybdenum is being coprecipitated with manganese oxides. Such a hypothesis is supported by the fact that the average molybdenum to manganese weight ratio of suspended matter closely approximates that of local manganese nodules, and by a mathematical analysis of the distribution data which includes development of a model for scavenging. Computations using the model relationships indicate that manganese oxide scavenging tends to concentrate molybdenum in the reducing waters where the anoxic processes responsible for its deposition in the sediments become operative. Additional calculations based upon current estimates of oceanic residence times suggest that manganese-oxide scavenging operating on an oceanic scale could be removing approximately 10% of the molybdenum being added to the oceans.