Uranium Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance data from the area of the Teller, Bendeleben, Candle, and Kateel River Quadrangles, Seward Peninsula and vicinity, Alaska

• Main Authors: Sharp, R.R. Jr., Hill, D.E.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1978
• Subjects: Elements; Emission Spectroscopy; Prospecting; Geologic Deposits; Sediments; Alaska; Spectroscopy 050200* > Nuclear Fuels > Exploration > (-1987); Geochemical Surveys; Nondestructive Analysis; Uranium Deposits; Actinides; Metals; Data Compilation; Chemical Analysis; Usa; Uranium; Fluorescence Spectroscopy; Nuclear Reaction Analysis; 11 Nuclear Fuel Cycle And Fuel Materials; North America; Delayed Neutron Analysis; Pacific Northwest Region; Resources; Pacific; Quadrangle; Seward Peninsula
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2172/6703904; https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1191549/

During July-August 1976, 2026 natural waters and 2085 bottom sediments were collected from 2209 sample locations (at a nominal density of one location each 23 km/sup 2/) on streams and small lakes throughout the Teller, Bendeleben, Candle, and western one-third of the Kateel River NTMS quadrangles, Alaska. Total uranium was measured in the waters by fluorometry and in the sediments and a few waters by delayed-neutron counting. The uranium content of the waters ranged from below the detection limit of 0.02 parts per billion (ppB) to a high of 14.50 ppB, averaging 0.44 ppB, and that of the sediments ranged from a low of 0.2 parts per million (ppM) to a high of 107.4 ppM, averaing 3.93 ppM. The uranium data for water and sediment are separately presented--as computer listings that include pertinent field measurements from each location, as graphically portrayed concentration overlays at 1:250,000 scale for each quadrangle, and as reduced figures showing contours drawn at various concentration levels for each quadrangle--and their areal distributions are compared and correlated with the known features and uranium showings. A test of increasingly detailed methods of data evaluation shows that the more extensive the evaluation, the more useful the reconnaissance uranium data are likely to be. The validity and potential usefulness of the HSSR uranium data are conclusively substantiated by the fact that evidence of all 23 of the reported uranium showings in the 50,000-km/sup 2/ study area can be discerned. Several new locations of interest for further field investigation are identified in each of the quadrangles, and most notably in the Bendeleben Mountains. However, the data presented would appear equally useful in guiding field investigation around the uranium occurrences already known, as noteworthy samples often come from close by but on tributary drainages adjacent, opposite, or above them.