The geochemistry of tritium

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Abstract
The tritium concentration has been determined in precipitation, ocean waters, and ground waters. Although the steady‐state tritium ‘cycle’ has been disturbed by thermonuclear testing, enough analyses of pre‐test water have been made to conclude that: (1) the North Atlantic surface water had a natural mean T:H = 1.0 × 10−18 which doubled in 1954 because of the Castle tests, (2) this water mixes down to the seasonal thermocline in one year, (3) the North Atlantic Central Water appears to be 25 years old off the coast of Portugal, (4) measurable tritium was found in three bottom samples in the North Atlantic suggesting a young age for some of that water, (5) the hot waters of the Tecolote Tunnel, California, were from recent (nine months) rains, (6) direct runoff of precipitation from the ground surface to streams was at least three per cent of the total precipitation in the Hudson River basin in 1954, (7) the natural rate of production of tritium is calculated from a budget on the North Atlantic to be 0.75 ± 0.4 H3 atoms/sec cm2 of Earth's surface.