Atmospheric injection of radon daughters from the 1982 eruption of El Chichon volcano

Thesis/Dissertation · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6110871

Liou, J C.H.

Radiochemical measurements of the concentrations of /sup 210/Pb and /sup 210/Po have been carried out for individual samples of rain and snow which were collected at Fayetteville (36/sup 0/N,94/sup 0/W), Arkansas, during the period between August 1981 and September 1982, in an attempt to elucidate the effect of the 28 March 1982 eruption of El Chichon volcano in Mexico on the atmospheric inventories of the long-lived radon daughters. A sharp increase in the concentration of /sup 210/Pb was observed in the 31 March 1982 rain, but the effect of the volcano eruption was not clearly noticeable in the concentration of /sup 210/Po in rain and the /sup 210/Po//sup 210/Pb ratio in rain showed a marked decrease after the 28 March 1982 event. The observed patterns of variation of the concentrations and the ratios of long-lived radon daughers in rain were somewhat analogous to those observed after the 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens: a marked increase in the /sup 210/Po//sup 210/Pb ratio in rain was observed during the months of January and February 1981, more than seven months after the 18 May 1980 event, indicating that excess /sup 210/Po from the eruption of Mount St. Helens was injected primarily into the stratosphere. An order of magnitude calculation of the total amount of /sup 210/Po released into the atmosphere by the eruption of Mount St. Helens was carried out and a value of 2.1 x 10/sup 4/ Ci was obtained. This value is comparable to the estimate made by Lambert et al. (1982) for the atmospheric production of /sup 210/Po (3 x 10/sup 4/ Ci) and it corresponds to about 23% of their estimate of the total world-wide deposition of /sup 210/Po per year.

• Research Organization: Arkansas Univ., Fayetteville (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6110871
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500300* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ARKANSAS
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DATA
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FALLOUT
FALLOUT DEPOSITS
FEDERAL REGION VI
HEAVY NUCLEI
INFORMATION
ISOTOPE RATIO
ISOTOPES
LATIN AMERICA
LEAD 210
LEAD ISOTOPES
MASS TRANSFER
MEXICO
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
POLONIUM 210
POLONIUM ISOTOPES
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RAIN
SNOW
TIME DEPENDENCE
USA
VOLCANOES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES