Natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a Canadian Arctic ice core, Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, and comparison with other radionuclides
AbstractNumerous studies of the ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica have observed accumulations of transuranic radionuclides and fission products from nuclear weapons testing, particularly during the period 1945–75. Recently, the concentrations of radionuclides in the annually deposited surface lay...
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Online Access: | https://www.openaccessrepository.it/record/121993 https://doi.org/10.3189/172756500781833395 |
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ftopenaccessrep:oai:zenodo.org:121993 2023-10-29T02:31:32+01:00 Natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a Canadian Arctic ice core, Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, and comparison with other radionuclides Wayne Workman Thomas G. Kotzer Akira Kudo James Zheng 2000-01-01 https://www.openaccessrepository.it/record/121993 https://doi.org/10.3189/172756500781833395 eng eng url:https://www.openaccessrepository.it/communities/itmirror https://www.openaccessrepository.it/record/121993 doi:10.3189/172756500781833395 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess NEANIAS Atmospheric Research Community Earth-Surface Processes info:eu-repo/semantics/article publication-article 2000 ftopenaccessrep https://doi.org/10.3189/172756500781833395 2023-10-03T22:18:03Z AbstractNumerous studies of the ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica have observed accumulations of transuranic radionuclides and fission products from nuclear weapons testing, particularly during the period 1945–75. Recently, the concentrations of radionuclides in the annually deposited surface layers of Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic, from 1945 to the present have been measured and have demonstrated a continuous record of deposition of 137Cs and 239,240Pu in ice and snow. In this study, 3He-ingrowth mass spectrometry has been used to measure the low levels of tritium (3H) in some of these samples. Pre-nuclear-bomb tritium levels in ice-core samples were approximately 12 TU in high-latitude meteoric waters and 3–9 TU in mid-latitude meteoric waters. Comparisons of 3H levels and 3H/137Cs + 239,240Pu ratios, which were quite low during the earliest fission-bomb detonations (1946–51) and substantially higher during thermonuclear hydrogen-fusion bomb testing (1952–64), provide a clear indication of the type of nuclear device detonated. This finding accords with the results from other ice-core studies of the distribution of anthropogenic radionuclides from bomb fallout. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Arctic Ellesmere Island Greenland Ice cap ice core Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN): Open Access Repository Journal of Glaciology 46 152 35 40 |
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Open Polar |
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Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN): Open Access Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftopenaccessrep |
language |
English |
topic |
NEANIAS Atmospheric Research Community Earth-Surface Processes |
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NEANIAS Atmospheric Research Community Earth-Surface Processes Wayne Workman Thomas G. Kotzer Akira Kudo James Zheng Natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a Canadian Arctic ice core, Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, and comparison with other radionuclides |
topic_facet |
NEANIAS Atmospheric Research Community Earth-Surface Processes |
description |
AbstractNumerous studies of the ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica have observed accumulations of transuranic radionuclides and fission products from nuclear weapons testing, particularly during the period 1945–75. Recently, the concentrations of radionuclides in the annually deposited surface layers of Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic, from 1945 to the present have been measured and have demonstrated a continuous record of deposition of 137Cs and 239,240Pu in ice and snow. In this study, 3He-ingrowth mass spectrometry has been used to measure the low levels of tritium (3H) in some of these samples. Pre-nuclear-bomb tritium levels in ice-core samples were approximately 12 TU in high-latitude meteoric waters and 3–9 TU in mid-latitude meteoric waters. Comparisons of 3H levels and 3H/137Cs + 239,240Pu ratios, which were quite low during the earliest fission-bomb detonations (1946–51) and substantially higher during thermonuclear hydrogen-fusion bomb testing (1952–64), provide a clear indication of the type of nuclear device detonated. This finding accords with the results from other ice-core studies of the distribution of anthropogenic radionuclides from bomb fallout. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wayne Workman Thomas G. Kotzer Akira Kudo James Zheng |
author_facet |
Wayne Workman Thomas G. Kotzer Akira Kudo James Zheng |
author_sort |
Wayne Workman |
title |
Natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a Canadian Arctic ice core, Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, and comparison with other radionuclides |
title_short |
Natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a Canadian Arctic ice core, Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, and comparison with other radionuclides |
title_full |
Natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a Canadian Arctic ice core, Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, and comparison with other radionuclides |
title_fullStr |
Natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a Canadian Arctic ice core, Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, and comparison with other radionuclides |
title_full_unstemmed |
Natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a Canadian Arctic ice core, Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, and comparison with other radionuclides |
title_sort |
natural and anthropogenic levels of tritium in a canadian arctic ice core, agassiz ice cap, ellesmere island, and comparison with other radionuclides |
publishDate |
2000 |
url |
https://www.openaccessrepository.it/record/121993 https://doi.org/10.3189/172756500781833395 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Arctic Ellesmere Island Greenland Ice cap ice core |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Arctic Ellesmere Island Greenland Ice cap ice core |
op_relation |
url:https://www.openaccessrepository.it/communities/itmirror https://www.openaccessrepository.it/record/121993 doi:10.3189/172756500781833395 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3189/172756500781833395 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
46 |
container_issue |
152 |
container_start_page |
35 |
op_container_end_page |
40 |
_version_ |
1781052143797534720 |