We are pleased to announce and encourage submission to a Special Session at the 2012 Ocean Sciences meeting, Feb. 20-24, in Salt Lake City, USA.

Session #88

Consequences of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear power plant on the ocean.

We encourage submission on a broad range of topics related to the impact of the March 11 earthquake on the marine environment, including characterizing the radionuclide sources (air vs. direct discharge), their concentrations in ocean, sediments, groundwater, and biota, and also the non-radioactive consequences of the tsunami on the coastal environment and waters off Japan.  New methods and modeling papers are also appropriate, as well as comparisons between this event and others.  Full session description is below (please forward to interested colleagues).

The abstract submission deadline is 23:59 pm Central Daylight Time on 7 October 2011.

Abstract submission and registration deadlines can be found at: http://www.sgmeet.com/osm2012/

Organizers:

Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, kbuesseler@whoi.edu

Motoyoshi Ikeda, Hokkaido University, mikeda@ees.hokudai.ac.jp

The March 11, 2011 earthquake off Japan and subsequent tsunami caused devastation on land and disruption of cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant facility. The lack of adequate cooling led to overheating, venting of radioactive gases, explosions, fires and thereby atmospheric releases and fallout of radioactive contaminants. Water used to cool the reactors and spent fuel pond also led to considerable release of radionuclides to the ocean from direct run off and saturated soils and groundwater. This session seeks to bring together early data on the impact of these events on the ocean together with modeling results for a more comprehensive understanding of the event. This includes studies of the relative path and magnitude of the radioactive releases, range of radionuclides released, dose assessments, levels of contaminants in the sea water, sediment and biota, dispersion patterns measured and predicted for both near and far fields. Not only radioactive contaminant studies, but also work related to coastal flooding impacts and other non-radioactive pollutants (oils, sewage, etc.). and their transport pathways are also appropriate for this session. A goal of this session is to share with the broader community our initial assessments of the ocean off Japan.