Radiocaesium fallout behaviour in volcanic soils in Iceland [An article from: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity]

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The retention of ^1^3^7Cs in various types of Andosols in Iceland was investigated. Soils were sampled at 29 sites with varying precipitation and environmental conditions. Samples were obtained from 0 to 5, 5 to 10, and 10 to 15cm depths. The amount of radiocaesium present was quite variable, ranging between 300 and 4800Bqm^-^2 and correlated closely to total annual precipitation (r^2=0.71). The majority of ^1^3^7Cs, 82.7% on average, was retained in the uppermost 5cm of the soil. The greatest penetration of ^1^3^7Cs was observed for organic Histosols (76.3% in top 5cm). The Icelandic Vitrisols (barren, poorly developed Andosols) are coarse grained with only 2-5% clay content and contain little organic matter (