A simple and rapid method to locate fault traces by measurements of214Bi in soils

Abstract

A simple and rapid technique is presented to determine the relative counts of 214Bi in surface soils to locate active fault traces of the El Pilar Fault in the state of Sucre, Venezuela. The method employes a portable differential gamma-ray spectrometer on site with 300 seconds of measuring time. Three transects across the El Pilar fault of very different geological aspects were studied. One of the advantages of this technique in respect to determining 222Rn in soil-gas is that no soil-gas probes are required to be inserted in the soil and it is not necessary to know the appropriate depth. Finally, it has been suggested that measurements of 1000 seconds would be preferred rather than 300 seconds for future studies even though this would limit the number of measurements to about 20 per day.