226Ra, 228Ra and 40K as tracers of erosion and accumulation processes: A 3-year study on a beach with different sediment dynamics

Beach sediment dynamics from natural radionuclides point of view

“…All of these seem to agree with what would happen during erosion periods and thus, the temporal series seem to indicate that the three radionuclides, as well as the ratio, are tracing erosion/accumulation periods in the beach. [4] for Las Canteras beach [5].…”

“…It works coupled to a Canberra DSA-1000 multichannel analyser with the software package Genie 2000. Efficiency calibration of the system was performed using the Canberra LabSOCS package based on the Monte Carlo method [3], [5], [10], [11]. Calibration was verified using reference standards for IAEA RGK-1 (potassium sulfate), RGU-1 (uranium ore) and RGTh-1 (thorium ore).…”

“…The X-ray diffraction analysis was selected as a technique to search the minerals that are transported during erosion and accumulations periods and could contain the radionuclides studied. With these techniques, it was expected to identify and better characterize the different sediments and minerals that mix in the sand and are responsible for the activity concentrations found [5].…”

“…For the temporal analysis a one-way ANOVA test was performed to evaluate the presence of significant difference among the difference groups. Finally, a Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) Test [17] was used to stablish the exact groups among which significant differences were found [5].…”

“…Hence, the results obtained could be expected to be applied in other parts of the world. In this framework, a spatio-temporal analysis of the activity concentrations of natural radionuclides was performed in Las Canteras beach during 2016 and 2019 [4], [5] and it is described in this work. These studies evaluated the role of gamma emitting radionuclides 226 Ra, 228 Ra, 40 K, 210 Pbex and the ratio 226 Ra/ 228 Ra as tracers of erosion and accumulation periods in beach areas.…”