Chemical composition of sediments from GH78-1 cruise

Seventeen chemical elements were determined for 49 samples taken from the GH78-1 cruise of the R/V Hakurei-Maru northern Central Pacific Basin. Thirty-one samples of them are from surface of grabbed sediments and others are ones resampled in core from the same grabbed sediment samples by plastic tube. Sediments containing sea water were stirred and dispersed in distilled water, were separated from water in the centrifuge, and the water was decanted. This cleansing process was repeated four or five times until no chloride ion was admitted. Then the sediments were dried, ground under the size of 200 mesh (74 micrometer), and contained in a desiccator as the sample for analysis. Bound water (H2O+) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were determined by heating the sample at 1000 °C. All oxide components were determined by wet chemistry. The other minor ekements were measured using atomic absorption spectrophotometry.