Abstract
This article was conducted to measure radon concentration levels in the Yarmouk River Basalt (YRB), North-Jordan. The YRB is of Quaternary in age and occurred as a successive sheet with a total thickness of 122 meters. The Yarmouk River Basalt is classified into four major phases. Namely, Yarmouk Sheet basalt, Yarmouk blocky basalt, Yarmouk massive basalt, and Yarmouk exfoliated. Furthermore, each major phase is subdivided into several flows. Sixteen samples are measured by using Nuclear Track Detector (Columbia Resin CR-39) in the laboratory. The results show that the concentration of radon is gradually decreased from the lower basalt first phase towards the upper fourth phase in considerable amounts. The values range from 12413.12 to 4137.71 Bq/m3, with an average value of 6635.74 Bq/m3. The results of this investigation indicate that the uranium isotopes element decay is the origin of radon emitted from the interstitial glass in the basalt rocks, rather than 222Rn emission along with fractures or major faults.
Highlights
In the natural environment, there are three isotopes of radon occurring naturally as 222Rn, 220Rn and 219Rn
Yarmouk Sheet basalt is mainly exposed in the southern part of Yarmouk River
This study aims to investigate natural gas concentration222Rn Jordan
Summary
There are three isotopes of radon occurring naturally as 222Rn (radon), 220Rn (thoron) and 219Rn (actinon). These isotopes are direct decay products of radium isotopes. Radon is the most important isotope in environmental studies (NCRP, 1984; Alshahri, 2014). It has a half-life equal to 3.82 days which equals 91.68 hr. The second isotope is thoron 220Rn, comes from the decay of thorium series 232Th, and it has a half-life (55.6 s). The third isotope actinon 219Rn is part of the decay chain of 235U, a relatively low abundance in nature and has an extremely short half-life (3.96 s) (Muhassar, 2009). Risk increases as an individual is exposed to higher levels of radon over a longer period time (Al-Malabeh and Hamed, 2020; AlMalabeh et al, 2008)
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