Radium isotopes in salt marsh and estuarine environments

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 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
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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