Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses applications of uranium- and thorium-series radionuclides in catchment hydrology studies. It also reviews the environmental behavior of the various radionuclides in order to understand and predict their presence and transport in the environment as a result of mining, milling, and other technological redistributions of ores and other materials naturally high in radionuclides. Uranium and thorium decay products are used to determine the age of speleothems and archeological remains, sedimentation rates of marine and lake sediments, rates of water-rock re-equilibration in hydrothermal systems, and calculation of erosion rates on a continental scale. The approaches and models used in interpreting uranium- and thorium-series radionuclide data are simpler and less sophisticated than those that have been developed for stable isotope. Uranium and thorium are long-lived radioactive elements found in all earth material. Uranium can also be removed from solution, even oxidizing ones, by adsorption onto solid substrates due to changing pH. Adsorption of uranium onto ferric oxyhydroxides, clay minerals, and even micaceous minerals at pH values common in natural waters is well known. The application of uranium- and thorium-series radionuclides to quantitatively solve problems in small catchment hydrologic studies has been largely neglected.
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