-~ 51 form by precipitation,

co-precipitation with accompanying

materials, or by adsorption to organic material or inorganic
silts and clays.

As in other solutions,

precipitation will

occur only when the solubility product of the least soluble
compound of the element has been exceeded.

Prediction of

the physical state of fission products in sea water is
difficult because most of them are elements that occur only

rarely in the complex mixture of elements in the sea and
little is known of their ionic activity.
Although water movement is the principal method
of horizontal transport of fallout materials in the ocean
and the physical and chemical forms of fallout are important to vertical transport,

the uptake of radioisotopes

by the biota temporarily removes some of the fallout material

from the forces of gravity and also may be an important
factor in the vertical transport of materials in the ionic

form across water boundaries such as the thermocline and
the stratified layers below the thermocline.

Plankton and

the organisms of the “deep scattering layer" commonly make
diurnal migrations from deep water to | near the surface.
When fallout material first enters the water,

plankton

acquire radioisotopes in both the soluble and insoluble

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