1 environment. Without doubt, more samples would benefit the mode] greatly. However, the distributions available are sufficiently detailed to provide information on some of the basic phenomena responsible for the distributions observed. Towards this jyoal, the author has, in previous sections, directed attention to interpretations of much of the data which can be simply made on the basis of a small number of consistent processes. In the following section, an integration of these interpretations is attempted with the goal of suq- gesting mechanisms for the distributions measured. Given a dynamic hydrological environment at Bikini, the most significant contamination of the sedimentary environment, a priori, would arise from the large surface bursts (such as Bravo, Koon and Zuni) whose fireballs strongly interacted with the soil horizon, and from similar interactions of deep lagoon or barge bursts such as the Paker and Tewa tests. At Bikini, the initia) introduction of highly contaminated debris to the lagoon from detonations of this type can be described as the deposition of a large mass of chemically altered coralline soils in a matrix reduced in size and containing the condensed radionuclides. A large mass of crushed coralline material of a relatively low specific activity was also ejected. The areal distribution of the different matrix materials would overlap and at progressively greater distances away from the detonation craters the mixed particles would descend through the water column at rates determined by their size and shape. In the aqueous environment, the particles were subsequently transported a distance determined by their settling velocity and the speed of prevailing currents. This would act to yield a concentration of finer particles in surface deposits which would be progressively more pronounced, but also progressivele more