Ten-year long-range transport of radiocaesium in the surface layer in the Pacific Ocean and its marginal seas

Abstract

<p>Radiocaesium derived from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP1) accident was observed across a wide area of the North Pacific, not only in surface seawater, but also in the ocean interior. In this presentation, we summarized the time scale of Lagrangian transport of the FNPP1 derived radiocaesium in surface water during the period from the time of the accident to March 2021 in the North Pacific and the Arctic Oceans and its marginal seas as shown below.</p><p>Initial observation results until December 2012 in the surface layer in the North Pacific Ocean by the global observations revealed that a typical feature within one year after the accident was a westward movement across the North Pacific Ocean, speed of which was reported at 7 km day<sup>-1</sup> until August 2011. After that, the main body of FNPP1-derived radiocaesium moved east as 3 km day<sup>-1</sup> and is separated from Japan in 2013. The arrival of the FNPP1 signal at the west coast of the American continent was reported in 2014. The elevation in the FNPP1 derived radiocaesium concentration in the Bering Sea in 2017 and in the Arctic Ocean in 2019 was reported. The northward bifurcation of the Kuroshio Extension made these obvious transport of the FNPP1 derived radiocaesium to the subarctic and arctic region while the transport by southward bifurcation was not observed. At Hawaii Islands in the subtropical gyre, there was no signal of the FNPP1 derived radiocaesium during the period from March 2011 and February 2017. At Yonaguni Island where the Kuroshio enters the East China Sea, the FNPP1 signal arrived at Yonaguni Islands eight years after the time of the accident, and these might be transported mainly from the subtropical gyre.</p><p>At the marginal seas of the North Pacific Ocean, the elevation in the FNPP1 derived radiocaesium concentration in the northern East China Sea in 2014, in the Sea of Japan in 2014/2015 were observed.</p><p>We also briefly summarize study results on nuclides other than radiocaesium (e.g.,<sup> 90</sup>Sr, <sup>239240</sup>Pu, and <sup>129</sup>I).</p>