Arctic ocean ventilation studied with a suite of anthropogenic halocarbon tracers.

The chlorofluoromethanes (CFMs: CCl(2)F(2) and CCl(3)F), methyl chloroform (CH(3)CCl(3)), and carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)) have been measured in deep waters of the Arctic Ocean. Oceanic and atmospheric inventories of these compounds result from known anthropogenic releases; because the CFMs and CCl(4) are also chemically nonreactive, they can be used as transient tracers of ocean circulation. The input history of CCl(4) is longer than that of any other transient tracer identified to date( approximately 70 years). This long input history, together with an e-folding time scale of increase(tau) of approximately 28 years, makes CCl(4) potentially the most useful tracer for calibrating models of the oceanic uptake of the fossil-fuel CO(2) transient(tau approximately 25 years). The bottom water of the Nansen Basin, Arctic Ocean, has detectable CCl(4) but undetectable CFM(s) and CH(3)CCl(3), which suggests either that the bottom water is approximately 50 years old, or that there is a small, nonanthropogenic component of atmospheric CCl(4)(<6 parts per trillion by volume).