Delayed inputs of hot 137Cs and 241Am particles from Chernobyl to sediments from three Finnish lakes: implications for sediment dating

Appleby, Peter G ORCID: 0000-0002-6945-1841, Piliposyan, gor ORCID: 0000-0001-7182-0717, Weckström, Jan and Piliposyan, Gayane (2022) Delayed inputs of hot 137Cs and 241Am particles from Chernobyl to sediments from three Finnish lakes: implications for sediment dating. Journal of Paleolimnology, 69 (4). pp. 293-303.

Text
JOPL Appleby et al R1 2022.docx - Author Accepted Manuscript
Download (166kB)

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10933-022-00273-6

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Anomalous peaks in the <jats:sup>137</jats:sup>Cs and <jats:sup>241</jats:sup>Am records from three lake sediment cores from southern Finland appear to be due to the presence of micron-size hot radioactive particles, almost certainly originating in fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Since the imbedding sediments all post-date 1986 by several decades, it appears that they were initially deposited on the catchments of these lakes and transported to the lakes some years later. The activities of the particles were determined using a sequential splitting process. Two of the particles were found to contain <jats:sup>137</jats:sup>Cs with activities of 64 ± 4 mBq and 266 ± 15 mBq respectively. The third contained <jats:sup>241</jats:sup>Am with an activity of 17 ± 2 mBq, but no evidence of significant amounts of <jats:sup>137</jats:sup>Cs. The delayed input of such particles into the sedimentary records highlights the need for care in using <jats:sup>137</jats:sup>Cs or <jats:sup>241</jats:sup>Am as chronostratigraphic markers in areas subject to significant levels of contamination from Chernobyl fallout.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Lake sediments, Cs-137 dating, Chernobyl fallout, Finland, Hot particles, Post-depositional transport
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	24 Oct 2022 07:44
Last Modified:	03 Mar 2023 08:35
DOI:	10.1007/s10933-022-00273-6
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3165705