Beck, Aaron J. , van der Lee, Eefke M., Eggert, Anja, Stamer, Beate, Gledhill, Martha , Schlosser, Christian and Achterberg, Eric P. (2019) In situ measurements of explosive compound dissolution fluxes from exposed munition material in the Baltic Sea. Environmental Science & Technology, 53 (10). pp. 5652-5660. DOI 10.1021/acs.est.8b06974.

Preview	Text Beck et.al.pdf - Accepted Version Download (530kB) | Preview
Preview	Text Beck_et.al_SuppInfo.pdf - Supplemental Material Download (626kB) | Preview
	Text Beck et.al.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (793kB) | Contact

Abstract

Underwater munitions containing millions of tons of toxic explosives are present worldwide in coastal marine waters as a result of unexploded ordnance and intentional dumping. Dissolution flux of solid explosives following corrosion of metal munition housings controls exposure of biological receptors to toxic munition compounds (MC; including TNT: 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene, RDX: 1,3,5-Trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane, and DNB: 1,3-Dinitrobenzene). Very little is known about the dissolution behavior of MC in the marine environment. In this work, we exploit a unique marine study site in the Baltic Sea with exposed solid explosives to quantify in situ MC dissolution fluxes using dissolved MC gradients near the exposed explosive surface, as well as benthic chamber incubations. The gradient method gave dissolution fluxes that ranged between 0.001 and 3.2, 0.0001 and 0.04, and 0.003 and 1.7 mg cm-2 d-1 for TNT, RDX, and DNB, respectively. Benthic chamber incubations indicated dissolution fluxes of 0.0047-0.277, 0-0.11, and 0.00047-1.45 mg cm-2 d-1 for TNT, RDX, and DNB, respectively. In situ dissolution fluxes estimated in the current study were lower than most dissolution rates reported for laboratory experiments, but clearly demonstrated that MC are released from underwater munitions to the water column in the Baltic Sea.

Actions (login required)

View Item