Radiocaesium fallout behaviour in volcanic soils in Iceland

Vertical distribution and inventories of 137Cs in the Syrian soils of the eastern Mediterranean region

“…A more linear relationship can be observed for areas where only the nuclear bomb test fallout is predominant. Such a linear relationship was observed in Iceland where 137 Cs in Icelandic ecosystems originated primarily from nuclear weapon tests with additional minor contribution from Chernobyl accident (Sigurgeirsson et al, 2005). Similar trends were also observed in Chile (Schuller et al, 2002) and Korea (Lee and Lee, 1997) where 137 Cs deposition was mainly originated from nuclear weapon tests.…”

“…7) using the so-called Explanatory Data analysis method (one example which is the Box-Plot is used here). Consequently, the majority of 137 Cs was retained in the upper The strong retention of 137 Cs at the surface of different soils was attributed to the presence of clay minerals and organic matters (Price, 1991;Arapis and Karandinos, 2004;Hölgye and Maly, 2000;Poreba et al, 2003;Sigurgeirsson et al, 2005). The variations observed for the Aridisols could be due to chemical and physicochemical properties of Aridisols that are characterized by its poor aggregation and unstable structure in addition to its high rate of water movement (FAO, 1990).…”

“…The Inceptisols profiles also showed a good penetration of 137 Cs and could be due to relatively high clay content that causes cracks in summer. Another possible explanation could be due to the fact that Inceptisols have also high Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) (54.88 meq/100 g on average), but, Sigurgeirsson et al (2005), reported that the amount of 137 Cs retained below the 5 cm depth is not related to the CEC.…”

Genesis and Mineralogical Characteristics

“…9, with Al-humus complex formation becoming dominant as the pH becomes lower. Icelandic Andosol surface samples analyzed by Sigurgeirsson et al (2005) provide excellent evidence of this, as is shown in Fig. 9.1.…”

“…9.2), with an increasing proportion of the (Al + Fe) ox as pyrophosphate extractable Al + Fe (R 2 = 0.77; n = 77). Cs research, see Sigurgeirsson et al (2005) Common ratios of (Al + Fe)/C in organo-mineral complexes in Andosols range between 0.1 and 0.25 Nanzyo et al 1993;Rodriguez et al 2006). Using this ratio reveals that a significant proportions (often 20 to >80 %) of the carbon in the soil is associated with organo-mineral complexes, but this awaits further studies (see Arnalds et al 2013).…”