Ubiquitous Tar Balls with a California-Source Signature on the Shorelines of Prince William Sound, Alaska

Tar balls and other oil residues were collected from the shores of Prince William Sound and dissolved in dichloromethane. Oil obtained from the Exxon Valdez and oil products used in Alaska were similarly treated. The carbon isotopic ratio was obtained for each sample after complete combustion to car...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 1995-10, Vol.29 (10), p.2684-2694
Main Authors: Kvenvolden, Keith A, Hostettler, Frances D, Carlson, Paul R, Rapp, John B, Threlkeld, Charles N, Warden, Augusta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Marine
Oil spills
Shorelines
Water pollution
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Summary:Tar balls and other oil residues were collected from the shores of Prince William Sound and dissolved in dichloromethane. Oil obtained from the Exxon Valdez and oil products used in Alaska were similarly treated. The carbon isotopic ratio was obtained for each sample after complete combustion to carbon dioxide. The remaining subsamples were fractionated by solid-liquid chromatography and then analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Most of the flattened tar balls from the northern and westerns shores were not residues of the Exxon Valdez oil but were similar to each other and consistent with oil products originating from the Monterey Formation source rocks of California. Their delta carbon-13 values were close to minus 23.7, while those from the oil spill were around minus 29.4. The likeliest source was oil products used in Alaska before 1970 for construction and pavements. Many of these could have been released by the 1964 earthquake which ruptured many storage facilities of California-sourced asphalt and fuel.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/es00010a033