Isotope Composition of Oxygen and Hydrogen in the Black Sea
Waters as a Result of the Dynamics of Water Masses

A. V. Dubinin^a and E. O. Dubinina^b

^a Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

^b Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry,
Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: dubinin@ocean.ru

Received March 14, 2013; in final form, September 19, 2013

Abstract—The isotope composition of hydrogen and oxygen in the water of the central part of the Black Sea
and at the continental slope was studied in detail. The vertical distribution of the D and ¹⁸O values allows one
to distinguish four water masses: from the surface of the sea to the core of the Cold Intermediate Layer (CIL),
from the CIL core to 500 m within the pycnocline, the deep water mass at 500–1750 m, and the Bottom Con-
vective Layer (BCL) deeper than 1750 m. The surface layer is homogenous in the center of the sea despite the
formation of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies. The main variations in the D and ¹⁸O values take place within
the pycnocline beneath the CIL core to the depth of 500 m. The salinity increases by 3‰ with the growth of the
delta values by 0.8 and 5‰ for the ¹⁸O and D, respectively. Deeper than the layer of 500m down to the bot-
tom, including the BCL, the D and ¹⁸O values practically do not vary. The isotope composition of the oxygen
and hydrogen in water is linearly dependent on the variations in salinity. This fact allows one to describe the
formation of the Black Sea waters using a simple model of mixing of the waters of the lower Bosporus current
and a hypothetical freshwater component of isotope composition formed by the riverine runoff, atmospheric
precipitation, and evaporation.

DOI: 10.1134/S0001437014050038

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