Neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen Tritiumzerfallsrate und die Frage der Herkunft des „natürlichen“ Tritium
The terrestrial decay rate of “natural” tritium has been re-determined from measurements of the tritium content of old snow samples from Greenland. The finding by CRAIG and BEGEMANN and LIBBY has been confirmed that the tritium decay rate is about 10 times higher than was anticipated previously. Two...
Published in: | Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A |
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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
1959
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zna-1959-0405 https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/zna/14/4/article-p334.xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zna-1959-0405/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zna-1959-0405/pdf |
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crdegruyter:10.1515/zna-1959-0405 2023-05-15T16:28:16+02:00 Neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen Tritiumzerfallsrate und die Frage der Herkunft des „natürlichen“ Tritium Begemann, F. 1959 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zna-1959-0405 https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/zna/14/4/article-p334.xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zna-1959-0405/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zna-1959-0405/pdf en eng Walter de Gruyter GmbH http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ CC-BY-NC-ND Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A volume 14, issue 4, page 334-342 ISSN 1865-7109 0932-0784 Physical and Theoretical Chemistry General Physics and Astronomy Mathematical Physics journal-article 1959 crdegruyter https://doi.org/10.1515/zna-1959-0405 2022-05-11T14:46:02Z The terrestrial decay rate of “natural” tritium has been re-determined from measurements of the tritium content of old snow samples from Greenland. The finding by CRAIG and BEGEMANN and LIBBY has been confirmed that the tritium decay rate is about 10 times higher than was anticipated previously. Two mechanisms to explain the discrepancy are discussed, a) production by the low energy component of the cosmic radiation and b) the accretion of solar tritium by the earth, as suggested by FELD and ARNOLD. It is shown that in case all the tritium is produced by cosmic radiation the tropospheric production rate may be expected to vary in antiphase with the sunspot cycle, whereas in case of accretion of solar tritium by the earth the variation should be in phase with the sunspot cycle. In both cases a phase shift between the stratospheric production rate and the amount of tropospheric tritium is to be expected because of the residence time of tritium in the stratosphere. A measurement of the phase shift should allow to determine this residence time. The data obtained on the Greenland samples appear to show such a variation of the production rate. The results can be explained best by assuming that all the tritium is produced by cosmic radiation. This result, however, is only preliminary. More systematic measurements are required to decide between the two possibilities. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland De Gruyter (via Crossref) Greenland Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A 14 4 334 342 |
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Open Polar |
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De Gruyter (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crdegruyter |
language |
English |
topic |
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry General Physics and Astronomy Mathematical Physics |
spellingShingle |
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry General Physics and Astronomy Mathematical Physics Begemann, F. Neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen Tritiumzerfallsrate und die Frage der Herkunft des „natürlichen“ Tritium |
topic_facet |
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry General Physics and Astronomy Mathematical Physics |
description |
The terrestrial decay rate of “natural” tritium has been re-determined from measurements of the tritium content of old snow samples from Greenland. The finding by CRAIG and BEGEMANN and LIBBY has been confirmed that the tritium decay rate is about 10 times higher than was anticipated previously. Two mechanisms to explain the discrepancy are discussed, a) production by the low energy component of the cosmic radiation and b) the accretion of solar tritium by the earth, as suggested by FELD and ARNOLD. It is shown that in case all the tritium is produced by cosmic radiation the tropospheric production rate may be expected to vary in antiphase with the sunspot cycle, whereas in case of accretion of solar tritium by the earth the variation should be in phase with the sunspot cycle. In both cases a phase shift between the stratospheric production rate and the amount of tropospheric tritium is to be expected because of the residence time of tritium in the stratosphere. A measurement of the phase shift should allow to determine this residence time. The data obtained on the Greenland samples appear to show such a variation of the production rate. The results can be explained best by assuming that all the tritium is produced by cosmic radiation. This result, however, is only preliminary. More systematic measurements are required to decide between the two possibilities. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Begemann, F. |
author_facet |
Begemann, F. |
author_sort |
Begemann, F. |
title |
Neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen Tritiumzerfallsrate und die Frage der Herkunft des „natürlichen“ Tritium |
title_short |
Neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen Tritiumzerfallsrate und die Frage der Herkunft des „natürlichen“ Tritium |
title_full |
Neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen Tritiumzerfallsrate und die Frage der Herkunft des „natürlichen“ Tritium |
title_fullStr |
Neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen Tritiumzerfallsrate und die Frage der Herkunft des „natürlichen“ Tritium |
title_full_unstemmed |
Neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen Tritiumzerfallsrate und die Frage der Herkunft des „natürlichen“ Tritium |
title_sort |
neubestimmung der natürlichen irdischen tritiumzerfallsrate und die frage der herkunft des „natürlichen“ tritium |
publisher |
Walter de Gruyter GmbH |
publishDate |
1959 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zna-1959-0405 https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/zna/14/4/article-p334.xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zna-1959-0405/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zna-1959-0405/pdf |
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Greenland |
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Greenland |
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Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A volume 14, issue 4, page 334-342 ISSN 1865-7109 0932-0784 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1515/zna-1959-0405 |
container_title |
Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A |
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14 |
container_issue |
4 |
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334 |
op_container_end_page |
342 |
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