Geological Structure and Geochemistry Controlling Radon in Soil Gas

Kemski, J.; Klingel, R.; Schneiders, H.; Siehl, A.; Wiegand, Jens

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.rpd.a081533

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…In nature, high concentrations of light hydrocarbon gases (e.g., methane, ethane, and propane), carbon dioxide, and radon have often been found in soils above hydrocarbon gas-bearing rock formations, especially in areas associated with faults zones [Duddridge et al, 1991;Kemski et al, 1992]. These gases, originated from gas-bearing formations, migrate upward through open and connected faults/fractures, producing anomalously high gas concentrations in the upper soil layer.…”

Section: Gas Leakagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbubble transport in water‐saturated porous media

Kong

Scheuermann

et al. 2015

Water Resources Research

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Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate flow of discrete microbubbles through a water-saturated porous medium. During the experiments, bubbles, released from a diffuser, moved upward through a quasi-2-D flume filled with transparent water-based gelbeads and formed a distinct plume that could be well registered by a calibrated camera. Outflowing bubbles were collected on the top of the flume using volumetric burettes for flux measurements. We quantified the scaling behaviors between the gas (bubble) release rates and various characteristic parameters of the bubble plume, including plume tip velocity, plume width, and breakthrough time of the plume front. The experiments also revealed circulations of ambient pore water induced by the bubble flow. Based on a simple momentum exchange model, we showed that the relationship between the mean pore water velocity and gas release rate is consistent with the scaling solution for the bubble plume. These findings have important implications for studies of natural gas emission and air sparging, as well as fundamental research on bubble transport in porous media.

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Section: Gas Leakagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbubble transport in water‐saturated porous media

Kong

Scheuermann

et al. 2015

Water Resources Research

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“…Last but not least, the parameter ''faults'' is one of the major concerns in the local parameters. It carries ''1'' point as the possibly high soil moisture and vast uranium deposition near faults are in favor of radon emanation (Choubey et al 2000;Kemski et al 1992;Wiegand 2001). As long as only the soil radon in rural/natural areas is concerned, the effect of traffic vibration and soil sealing are not considered in this study.…”

Section: Development Of Radon Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of soil radon potential in Hong Kong, China, using a 10-point evaluation system

et al. 2012

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Radon and its progenies have been ranked second of being responsible for lung cancer in humans. Hong Kong has four major groups of uranium-rich plutonic and volcanic rocks and is suffering from radon emanated therefrom. However, there is a lack of radon potential maps in Hong Kong to resolve the spatial distribution of radonprone areas. A ten-point radon potential system was developed in Germany (2005) to predict radon potential using both the in situ geogenic and geographic parameters under hierarchical ranking. Primarily, the ten-point system requires the desk study of the geological environment of sampling sites, which has an advantage of saving resources and manpower in extensive radon potential mapping over the traditional soil radon concentration sampling method. This paper presents a trial of radon potential mapping in Hong Kong to further verify the system. Despite some slight departures, the system demonstrates an acceptable correlation with soil radon concentrations (R 2 = 0.62-0.66) from 768 samples of mainly intermediate radon potential. Hong Kong has a mean soil radon concentrations of 58.9 kBqm -3 , while the radon potential from the ten-point system achieves an average of 4.93 out of 10 over the territory. The vicinity of fault zone showed high soil radon concentrations and potentials, which were conducive to uranium enrichment and rapid soil-gas diffusion near faults. High uranium-238 content in soil was found to cause high soil radon concentration with a large R 2 , 0.84. The Jurassic granite and volcanic crystal tuff cover more than 85 % of the whole Hong Kong area, and they show relatively high radon concentrations (Geometric mean 83 and 49 kBqm -3 , respectively) which are associated with their high uranium contents (Geometric mean 234 and 197 Bqkg -1 , respectively). While indoor radon concentration is an important factor for radon risk assessment, this study has not considered the correlation between indoor radon concentration and radon potential. The reason is that almost all buildings in Hong Kong are high-rise buildings where indoor radon concentrations are governed only by the radium content in the building materials and the ventilation conditions.

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“…In order to derive predictive models relating geological information with indoor radon potential, uranium/radium concentrations in rocks and soils, terrestrial gamma radiation surveys, and soil gas radon measurements have been studied extensively in various locations at small geographic scales where good statistics on indoor radon measurements were available (Dehandschutter 2006;Doyle 1989;Doyle et al 1990;Kemski et al 1992Kemski et al , 2002Kemski et al , 2008. Those predictive tools have been successfully implemented to produce radon potential maps, such as in Sweden at a municipal level and in Spain and Estonia on national scales.…”

Section: Geological Radon Predictive Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A preliminary design of a radon potential map for Canada: a multi-tier approach

Chen

2009

Environ Earth Sci

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Canada is a vast country with most of the population living on a small portion of the land. However, for a national radon potential map, it is mandatory to cover the entire country including sparsely populated areas. Because of these characteristics, the radon map development for Canada is challenging. After briefly reviewing of radon map development in the world, this study considers a multi-tier approach to best use available however limited resources and to generate a national radon map in a timely fashion. In summary, radon potential maps for highly populated areas should be determined by direct indoor radon measurements where enough indoor radon data are available. In areas where indoor radon measurements are limited or not yet available, the radon potential maps could be developed from various data sources with a multi-factor scoring system including geological information on soil permeability, soil gas radon concentration and ground uranium concentration. In sparsely populated areas, radon potential maps can only be generated with geological predictive tools, especially in those areas where no houses have yet been built. Because indoor radon measurement data and geological information relevant to radon are very limited in Canada, a multi-step strategy is also worth considering in addition to the multi-tier approach.

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Geological Structure and Geochemistry Controlling Radon in Soil Gas

Cited by 22 publications

References 0 publications

Microbubble transport in water‐saturated porous media

Microbubble transport in water‐saturated porous media

Assessment of soil radon potential in Hong Kong, China, using a 10-point evaluation system

A preliminary design of a radon potential map for Canada: a multi-tier approach

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