The Potential Use of Radioactive Decay Products for Dating Groundwater
The accumulation in groundwater of products from the radioactive decay of elements naturally found in rocks offers a potential for measuring the time that the groundwater has been contact with the rock. This method of dating groundwater has an advantage over using decay products from the atmosphere in that the amount of decay product becomes greater with increasing age rather than less. However, different decay products accumulate at different rates and, thus, have a different potential usefulness in age determinations. The most useful decay product is helium, produced from uranium and thorium. Argon produced from potassium is marginally useful for very old water. Neon, xenon and krypton are probably not useful because they are produced in extremely small quantities. In general, the potential for error increases when a long time to produce a small quantity is required.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-76SR00001
- OSTI ID:
- 780254
- Report Number(s):
- DP-MS-79-82; WRERAQ; TRN: AH200120%%71
- Journal Information:
- Water Resources Research, Other Information: PBD: 20 Mar 1980; ISSN 0043-1397
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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