Radioactivity of anthropogenic and natural radionuclides in marine sediments of the Chaun Bay, East Siberian Sea.

Natural radioactive isotopes serve as a useful proxy of geological and geochemical processes in marine environment, while radiocesium serves as an indicator of man-made contamination. Monitoring of natural and anthropogenic radioactivity under conditions of the climate changes in the Arctic region is of high importance in investigations of this natural system. For the first time, we report the data on spatial distribution of natural (232Th, 226Ra, 40K) and anthropogenic (137Cs) radionuclide activities in the marine sediments from Chaun Bay (East Siberian Sea). The measured activity concentrations varied in the range 23.7-77.9 (mean 39.2) Bq kg-1 for 232Th, 16.5-39.3 (mean 26.6) Bq kg-1 for 226Ra, 535-991 (mean 726) Bq kg-1 for 40K, and 0.5-4.7 (mean 2.0) Bq kg-1 for 137Cs. The radiocesium level in the sediments showed no local sources of anthropogenic pollution in the Chaun Bay, while the average activity concentration of 40K was 1.8 times higher than worldwide.

Lithological and granulometric data for the upper sedimentary layer of the Chaun Bay, East Siberian Sea.

The article provides a data on 160 samples of bottom sediments obtained from 48 stations during 60th cruise of R/V Akademik Oparin in the East Siberian Sea in Autumn 2020 (26 September - 11 November). It contains mean diameter of the particles, sorting coefficient, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis, values of percentiles (p5, p10, p16, p25, p50, p75, p84, p90, p95), lithology and mass percentage of >2 mm, 1-2 mm, 0.5-1 mm, 250-500 µm, 125-250 µm, 63-125 µm, 31-63 µm, 10-31 µm, 2-10 µm, and <2 µm fractions. The bottom sediments have been sampled in Chaun Bay of the East Siberian Sea from 9 to 21 October 2020 with Ekman (0.25 m2) and Van Veen (0.05 m2) samplers. The grain size data was obtained from laser diffraction method using a SHIMADZU SALD 2300 particle analyser. The data provides an overview on lithology and grain size properties of bottom sediments that will be useful to understand risks for climate changes in the Arctic. The data will help the researchers who work on the Arctic to assess a relationship between grain size properties of the bottom sediments and it sorption potential. A principal component analysis (PCA) can be performed to identify key parameters of the bottom sediments in assessment of sedimentation rates and it changes in the Arctic. Additionally, the data can be used in mapping a spatial distribution of above mentioned parameters for better understanding sedimentation rate changes in the East Siberian Sea and adjacent seas as well.

Dataset on pore water composition and grain size properties of bottom sediments and subsea permafrost from the Buor-Khaya Bay (Laptev Sea).

The article presents a dataset on ionic composition of pore water and grain size properties of 105 samples of bottom sediments and subsea permafrost from three sediment cores obtained during polar expeditions in the Buor-Khaya Bay in 2014-2015. Collection sites are located southeast of the Lena Delta near the Bykovsky Peninsula at the Buor-Khaya Bay. In this data article, the concentration of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium cations, chlorides and sulphates in water extracts from sediments, as well as grain size characteristics, are presented. Based on these measurements a difference in salinisation dynamics of thawed strata within the Buor-Khaya Bay is shown.