Dataset: Geochemical composition of sediment pore water samples collected in the Equatorial Pacific during October and November 2020 on R/V Kilo Moana cruise KM2012

Water column, sediment, and pore water samples were collected following the methods in Abbott et al. (2015) during R/V Kilo Moana cruise KM2012 in October and November 2020. Pore water aliquots for REE (Rare Earth Elemental) concentration and εNd were collected by centrifuge and filtration (<0.45 micrometers (μm)). The REE aliquots were extracted from one core, while the εNd aliquots were multiple, combined extractions from corresponding layers of 20 to 25 cores. See 'Related Datasets' for the data from the water column samples and sediment cores.

Pore water aliquots for nutrient analyses were extracted using Rhizon samplers and filtered (<0.2 µm). Pore water aliquots for DOC analysis were extracted via Rhizon, filtered (<0.45 μm with GFF filter), poisoned with mercuric chloride, and stored in a glass vial.

Pore water dissolved O2 concentration was measured using a fiber-optic oxygen microsensor inserted into pre-drilled holes through the core into the sediments. The sensor readings are converted to oxygen concentration by linearly calibrating against the published bottom water O2 concentration at the study sites.

Pore water pH was measured on unfiltered samples using a portable pH sensor post-extraction via centrifugation. Analyses of pH in pore waters is notoriously difficult due to the changes in pressure upon recovery, and thus the pH data have finite utility.

Elemental concentrations, including the REEs, were analyzed at Oregon State University (OSU) using an Elemental Scientific seaFAST-pico offline preconcentration technique, and the procedure has been extensively documented as part of the GEOTRACES intercalibration effort (Behrens et al., 2016). Elemental concentrations of the εNd aliquots (~10 milliliters (mL)) were analyzed at ETH Zurich using Nobias Chelate-PA1 resin in a manual column procedure (K. Deng et al., 2022).

Isotope analysis of the εNd aliquots (400~700 mL of pore water or ~1.5 liters (L) of seawater) were done at ETH Zurich. Samples were buffered to a pH of 5.5 ± 5 and pre-concentrated using an in-house extraction manifold containing Nobias Chelate-PA1 resin. After pre-concentration, separation of Nd from the matrix elements and other REE was done using Eichrom RE and LN spec resins. Procedural blanks are <3 picograms (pg). Isotope analysis was done on an Neptune Plus MC-ICP-MS (Thermo-Fisher) following the procedure of Vance and Thirlwall (2002). Internally normalized sample data was renormalized to the 143Nd/144Nd ratio of La Jolla (Thirlwall, 1991). Repeated analysis of 8 parts per billion (ppb) La Jolla solutions results in a long-term external reproducibility of 0.27 ε (2σ). Nd isotope analysis was also quality-controlled by repeated measurements of the USGS reference materials BCR-2 (εNd = -0.11 ± 0.25, 2σ) and BHVO-2 (εNd = 6.70 ± 0.24, 2σ) at the same concentration (5-10 ppb) as the pore water samples in agreement with literature results (Jochum et al., 2005).

Nutrients were analyzed at Oregon State University using Technicon AutoAnalyzer II (phosphate and ammonium) and Alpkem RFA 300 (silicic acid, nitrate+nitrite). The method and data processing follow Gordon et al. (1993). DOC was analyzed with a V-CSN/TNM-1 (Shimadzu Corp, Kyoto, Japan) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography following White et al. (2023).

Sediment samples were analysed for total organic carbon contents using a GVI (now Elementar) Isoprime 1000 with Eurovector EA at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Samples were measured for the total carbon (organic plus inorganic) and a separate sample split was acidified to remove carbonate and then measured for the organic fraction.

​X-ray diffraction (XRD) of freeze-dried raw samples were made at K/T GeoServices Inc. (Colorado, USA), using a Siemens D500 automated powder diffractometer equipped with a copper X-ray source (40kV, 30mA) and a scintillation X-ray detector. Semi-quantitative determinations of whole-sediment mineral amounts were done using Jade Software (Materials Data, Inc.) with the Whole Pattern Fitting option.