Bomb fall-out 236U as a global oceanic tracer using an annually resolved coral core

Anthropogenic U-236 (t(1/2)=23.4 My) is an emerging isotopic ocean tracer with interesting oceanographic properties, but only with recent advances in accelerator mass spectrometry techniques is it now possible to detect the levels from global fall-out of nuclear weapons testing across the water column. To make full use of this tracer, an assessment of its input into the ocean over the past decades is required. We captured the bomb-pulse of U-236 in an annually resolved coral core record from the Caribbean Sea. We thereby establish a concept which gives U-236 great advantage - the presence of reliable, well-resolved chronological archives. This allows studies of not only the present distribution pattern, but gives access to the temporal evolution of U-236 in ocean waters over the past decades. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.