Dependence of radon exhalation on grain size of sedimentary waste

Tailings resulted from sulphuric acid leaching process of uranium from sedimentary rocks contain high concentrations of ²²⁶Ra and its daughters, the most important of which is ²²²Rn. Movement of radon gas out of the tailings is strongly influenced by the physicochemical characteristics of these tailings especially their radium content and the grain size. So, the tailing samples were size fractionated into four sizes (>?250, 250–125, 125–74 and <?74 µm). The natural radioactivity was investigated using hyper-pure germanium detector and solid-state nuclear track detectors (CR-39) for bulk size and after size fractionation. The activity concentrations of different radionuclides in size-fractionated tailing samples have been shown to be strongly dependent on the size of the particles. In the range of >?250 and <?74 µm, the activity concentrations of ²³⁰Th, ²²⁶Ra, ²¹⁴Pb, ²¹⁴Bi, ²¹⁰Pb, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K increased throughout with decreasing particle size, while that of ²³⁸U, ²³⁴U and ²³⁵U have an opposite effect. The results revealed an inverse relationship between the radon exhalation rate and size fractionation. Also, the results showed a good correlation between radium activity concentration and radon mass exhalation rate.     

Variability of Thermocline Characteristics in the Range of the Black Sea Rim Current

Doklady Earth Sciences - The data collected in the course of the drifter experiment within the Rim Current zone allowed preliminary estimates of the thermocline response to a changing current...     

Integrated Geophysical Works on the Kozlovka Anomaly (Kaluga Region)

This work presents integrated geophysical studies that were carried out to identify the nature of the intense magnetic anomaly detected by the results of land surveying on the right bank of the Slushka River in the territory of the Yukhnovskii district of Kaluga Region. The comprehensive interpretation of the geophysical data and the laboratory measurements of the core made it possible to determine the nature and parameters of the anomaly-forming object that is located in the upper part of the section; it consists of loams that contain such magnetic minerals as greigite, pyrrhotite, and magnetite.     

Multi-method radiometric dating of volcano-sedimentary layers from northern Italy: Age and duration of the Priabonian stage

A comparison between conventional KAr (biotite) ages and fission track (zircon and apatite) and UPb (zircon) ages obtained from stratigraphically well-constrained Priabonian (Late Eocene) volcano-sedimentary deposits of northern Italy is presented. Two sections at Priabona (one level) and Possagno (two levels) were dated. The application of fission track dating appears fruitful for obtaining reasonably precise (±4 to 5% 2σ errors) ages useful for time-scale calibration. The concordancy of apatite and zircon fission track ages, and the reproducibility of results provide the time of volcanic eruption and deposition. The UPb analysis of the zircons has not been unsuccessful, but discordancy does not permit accurate dating. Significant dates obtained from Possagno are: KAr method, 35.0 ± 0.5 Ma (duplicate analysis on K-rich biotite from the same level); fission track dating method, 35.8 ± 1.4 Ma (weighted mean age on 2 apatite and 3 zircon separates from the same level); UPb method, 36.7 ± 1.0 Ma (maximum age of discordant zircons from the same level). The comparison between the present results and recent multi-method and multi-laboratory results obtained from time equivalent Priabonian (Late Eocene) biotite-rich layers from the Apennines shows perfect agreement and supports the location of a Priabonian stage between about 37.5 Ma and about 33.7 (±0.5) Ma; the alternative ages preferred by the Decade of North American Geology convention should be abandoned and a large portion of this scale revised accordingly.     

Impact of suboxia on sinking particulate organic carbon: Enhanced carbon flux and preferential degradation of amino acids via denitrification

Fluxes of particulate organic carbon (POC) through the oxygen deficient waters in the eastern tropical North Pacific were found to be relatively less attenuated with depth than elsewhere in the eastern North Pacific. The attenuation coefficient (b) for the flux was found to be 0.40 versus the composite value of 0.86 determined by Martin et al. (1987). To examine this further, sinking POC was collected using sediment traps and allowed to degrade in oxic and suboxic experiments. Using a kinetic model, it was found that degradation proceeded at similar rates (roughly 0.8 day⁻¹) under oxic and suboxic conditions, but a greater fraction of bulk POC was resistant to degradation in the suboxic experiments (61% vs. 23%). Amino acids accounted for 37% of POC collected at 75m, but following degradation the value dropped to 17% and 16% in the oxic and suboxic experiments respectively. POC collected from 500m was 10% amino acids. The non-AA component of POC collected at 75m was not degraded under suboxic conditions, while under oxic conditions it was. These results suggest that microbes degrading OC under suboxic conditions via denitrification preferentially utilize nitrogen-rich amino acids. This preferential degradation of amino acids suggests that 9% more nitrogen may be lost via water column denitrification than is accounted for when a more “Redfieldian” stoichiometry for POC is assumed.     

Problem of water in the upper mantle: Antigorite breakdown

Doklady Earth Sciences -