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Pure Appl. Chem., 1996, Vol. 68, No. 9, pp. 1689-1697

http://dx.doi.org/10.1351/pac199668091689

The Budget and Cycle of Earth's Natural Chlorine

T. E. Graedel1 and W. C. Keene2

1 Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974 USA
2 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA

Abstract: Earth's chlorine, retained when the planet was formed from the Solar nebula, is contained largely in three reservoirs: the mantle (99.6%), the crust (0.3%), and the oceans (0.1%). Only oceanic chlorine is readily mobile, cycling among the lower and middle atmosphere, the pedosphere, freshwaters, and the cryosphere. Inter-reservoir chlorine fluxes are estimated for all transitions of interest; by far the most important on a mass basis is the injection of seasalt from the oceans to the atmosphere, and its return to the planetary surface by wet and dry deposition.