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Radiogeochemistry of Soils and Sands of the Monazite Placer in Southern Yakutia

  • DEGRADATION, REHABILITATION, AND CONSERVATION OF SOILS
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Abstract—

The results of the field radiometric survey of the mined monazite Vasil’evka placer in southern Yakutia are presented. It is shown that the natural background radioactivity of soils of the surveyed area mainly depends on the features of its geological structure and, to some extent, on landscape-geocryological conditions. The rate of equivalent dose of gamma radiation on the soil surface of the studied plot varies in a wide range (from 0.04 to 0.50 µSv/h or more), depending on changes in the concentrations of 40K, 238U, and 232Th in soils. Radiogeochemical features of soils in the studied area are well displayed on radiometric maps by isolines of the dose rate and radionuclide contents. The concentrations of 40K, 238U, and 232Th are minimal in a peat-bog soil and a high moor on the interfluves composed of crystalline schists and gneisses and are maximal in podburs and alluvial soils formed on the products of weathering of granitoid rocks and monazite-bearing alluvial deposits in the Vasil’evka River valley. The studied soils are characterized by low mean concentrations of 40K and 238U, corresponding to their background values in soils of Yakutia. The mean concentration of 232Th in the studied soils is increased as compared to the geochemical background. In addition to the composition of soil-forming rocks, the content and distribution of radionuclides in soils are significantly affected by soil-forming processes, chemical properties of elements, and technogenic impact. According to the effective specific activity of radionuclides, the studied soils correspond to the first, second, and third classes of building materials. Soils and enriched sands in some parts of technogenic landscapes are assigned to low-radioactive industrial waste according to the specific activity of thorium and require disposal. Their use as building materials from the identified areas of natural thorium concentration in alluvial deposits has serious limitations.

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Funding

This work was performed within the framework of state assignment of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation no. 0297-2021-0027, Unified State Information System for Accounting Research, Development, and Technological Works no. АААА-А21-121012190033-5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 677980, Yakutsk, Russia

    P. I. Sobakin, A. P. Chevychelov & A. N. Gorokhov

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  1. P. I. Sobakin
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  2. A. P. Chevychelov
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  3. A. N. Gorokhov
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Correspondence to P. I. Sobakin.

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Translated by I. Bel’chenko

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Sobakin, P.I., Chevychelov, A.P. & Gorokhov, A.N. Radiogeochemistry of Soils and Sands of the Monazite Placer in Southern Yakutia. Eurasian Soil Sc. 54, 1987–1999 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229321120115

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229321120115

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