METHODS

        This data set contains geochemical data on sediments collected in 8
USGS cores and one Oregon State University core from the continental margin
of California and southern Oregon.  Core W8709A-13PC is a piston core
collected by Oregon State University as part of their MULTITRACERS transect
across the southern Oregon margin at about 42š N from shelf to basin (Lyle
and others, 1992 ). Core G138 is a gravity core collected in 1981 on USGS
cruise L13-81 on the R/V S. P. Lee.  Core G15 is a gravity core collected
in 1981 on USGS cruise V1-81 on the research vessel R/V Valero.  Cores P51,
P03, P54, P40, P33, P34, P18, and P29 are piston cores collected in 1992 on
USGS cruise F2-92 on the R/V Farnella (Gardner and others, 1992).
        Samples of sediment for geochemical analyses were air dried and
ground in a ceramic mill.  Total carbon and inorganic (carbonate) carbon
were determined on aliquots of the ground samples (Engleman and others,
1985).  The carbonate in the untreated whole sample was acidified with
perchloric acid to liberate CO2, which was titrated in the coulometer cell
to measure carbonate carbon.  Total carbon was measured by titrating CO2
liberated during sample combustion at 1050o C in a stream of oxygen.  The
technique has a precision of better than ± 0.5% for both carbonate and
total carbon.  Organic carbon was calculated as the difference between
total and carbonate carbon.
        Concentrations of 10 major elements (Si, Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, Na, K, Ti,
P, and Mn) were measured on samples from most of the cores by
wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF; Baedecker,
1987) a second aliquot of the powdered sample.  Concentrations of 28 major
and trace elements (Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, Na, K, Ti, P, Mn, As, Ba, Ce, Co, Cr,
Cu, Ga, La, Li, Nb, Nd, Ni, Pb, Sc, Sr, Th, V, Y, and Zn) were determined
on samples from all cores by inductively coupled, argon-plasma, emission
spectrometry (ICP; Baedecker, 1987).  Estimates of precision of these
methods are given in Dean and Gardner (1995).

Baedecker, P.A. (Editor), 1987, Geochemical methods of analysis.  U.S.
Geological Survey Bulletin 1770, 129 pp.
Dean, W. E., and Gardner, J. V., 1995, Geochemistry of surface sediments in
the Gulf of the Farallones:  U. S. Geological Survey Open-File Report
95-527 57 p.
Engleman, E.E., Jackson, L.L., Norton, D.R., and Fischer, A.G., 1985,
Determination of carbonate carbon in geological materials by coulometric
titration:  Chem. Geol., v. 35, p. 125-128.
Gardner, J.V., Dean, W.E., and Kayan, R., 1992, Paleoceanography of the
California Current:  Cruise Report, USGS Cruise F2-92, Central and Southern
California Margin:  U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 92-342, 285 p.
Lyle, M., Zahn, R., Prahl, F., Dymond, J., Collier, R., Pisias, N., and
Suess, E.,1992, Paleoproductivity and carbon burial across the California
Current:  The Multitracers transect, 42°N: Paleoceanography,  v. 7, p.
251-272.