Radium isotopes in salt marsh and estuarine environments

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6704093

Bollinger, M S

Dissolved /sup 226/Ra, /sup 228/Ra, and /sup 224/Ra data from the tidal creeks and interstitial water and radium and thorium data from the sediments of salt marches in South Carolina, Delaware, and Massachusetts are presented. Dissolved radium activities in the tidal creeks were 2-3 times higher in the summer than at any other time because of increased bioturbation rates during the warm months. Radium activities in a tidal creek of the marsh surrounding North Inlet, SC, were 3 times higher than in the creeks of the Great Marsh, DE, and the Great Sippewissett Marsh, MA, primarily due to higher thorium activities in the southern marsh sediments. Diffusion out of the marsh sediments, drainage of pore water from creek banks near low tide, and bioturbation which brings high radium activity porewater and sediments toward the surface of the marsh and increases the surface area over which diffusion and desorption may occur control the dissolved radium activities in the tidal creeks.

• Research Organization: South Carolina Univ., Columbia (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6704093
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ESTUARIES
CONTAMINATION
INTERSTITIAL WATER
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
MARSHES
RADIUM 224
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
RADIUM 226
RADIUM 228
SEDIMENTS
STREAMS
THORIUM ISOTOPES
DELAWARE
DIFFUSION
MASSACHUSETTS
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
SOUTH CAROLINA
WATER POLLUTION
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ECOSYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FEDERAL REGION I
FEDERAL REGION III
FEDERAL REGION IV
GROUND WATER
HEAVY NUCLEI
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
ISOTOPES
MASS TRANSFER
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIUM ISOTOPES
SURFACE WATERS
USA
VARIATIONS
WATER
WETLANDS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
520300* - Environment
Aquatic- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (1989)