Global database of sedimentary excess thorium-234 (Th-234) in and near submarine canyons

This global compilation was generated to explore the application of thorium-234 (234Th) as a tracer for recent sedimentation in submarine canyons. Submarine canyons are located along the continental margins, including the shelf regions, which are disproportionally relevant for the carbon cycle and other essential biogeochemical processes. These geomorphological features can act as funnels for particles and represent a strong connection between land and the open ocean. The continental margins encompass dynamic environments, granting the necessity to use tracers capable of quantifying short-term events. 234Th is a particle reactive radionuclide that gets scavenged onto particles in the water column and, due to its short half-life of 24.1 days, it allows estimating the magnitude of recently deposited sediment on the seabed over the previous ~4 months. Excess 234Th (234Thxs) with respect to 234Th in secular equilibrium with its parent nuclide uranium-238 can be used to calculate excess 234Th inventories as a proxy of recent sediment deposition (Aller and Cochran, 1976). Moreover, the vertical profile of 234Thxs in surface sediment also serves for estimation of mixing rates when sedimentation rates are sufficiently low. This has advantages over the classic and extensively used lead-210 dating method with a decadal integration period (Arias-Ortiz et al., 2018), since the relatively short time scale of 234Th can match the occurrence of recent short deposition events, thus revealing the impacts of potential recent riverine runoff, trawling-derived deposition or phytoplankton blooms, among others.