Abstract
The input of 137Cs into the troposphere from the Chernobyl nuclear accident made intriguing the use of fallout 137Cs as a tool for estimating the rate of soil erosion over Europe. The present paper reports on the adoption of 137Cs/ 134Cs activity ratio to differentiate the vertical distribution of 137Cs prioir to and following the Chernobyl accident. The 137Cs/ 134Cs activity ration in the radioactive clouds is required to calculate pre and post- 1986 137Cs amounts, considering that the whole 134Cs was actually derived from Chernobyl. By using this procedure, the erosion rates could be evaluated for the badland area, the Paglia River basin (central Italy), before and after the Chernobyl accident. Nine sites from two areas of this basin were sampled and analyzed. Erosion rates, ranging from 1.5 to 8.4 mm/a were measured, the values depending both on the basin lithology and site slope. These first results are consistent with those yielded by quantitative geomorphologic methods.
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