High precision paleosalinity determination from measured porewater density

We have developed a density-based method for determining porewater salinity that can be performed shipboard on small volume samples with greater efficiency and precision than the currently available shore-based chloride titration technique. This approach is based on a recently developed water column method that determines salinity at the precision of a conductivity measurement through density measurements and the seawater thermodynamic equation of state. Diagenesis causes deviations in porewater composition from standard seawater values, affecting the density salinity relationship, that we correct for through precise measurements of each ion's concentration before converting measured density to chloride concentration. We account for the diffusive change in porewater chloride that occurs over time independent of diagenesis by optimizing diffusion modeled, sea-level determined bottom water chloride as a function of time to measured modern porewater and converting the best fit to salinity.