Ra-226 and Rn-222 in saline water compartments of the Aral Sea region

Abstract

The Aral Sea has been shrinking since 1963 due to extensive irrigation and the corresponding decline in the river water inflow. Understanding of the current hydrological situation demands an improved understanding of the surface water/groundwater dynamics in the region. 222Rn and 226Ra measurements can be used to trace groundwater discharge into surface waters. Data of these radiometric parameters were not previously available for the study region. We determined 222Rn activities after liquid phase extraction using Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC) with peak-length discrimination and analyzed 226Ra concentrations in different water compartments of the Amu Darya Delta (surface waters, unconfined groundwater, artesian water, and water profiles from the closed Large Aral Sea (western basin).The water samples comprise a salinity range between 1 and 263g/l. The seasonal dynamics of solid/water interaction under an arid climate regime force the hydrochemical evolution of the unconfined groundwater in the Amu Darya Delta to high-salinity Na(Mg)Cl(SO4) water types. The dissolved radium concentrations in the waters were mostly very low due to mineral over-saturation, extensive co-precipitation of radium and adsorption of radium on coexisting solid substrates.The analysis of very low 226Ra concentrations (<10ppq) at remote study sites is a challenge. We used the water samples to test and improve different analytical methods. In particular, we modified a procedure developed for the α-spectrometric determination of 226Ra after solid phase extraction of radium using 3M Empore™ High Performance Extraction Disks (Purkl, 2002) for the analysis of the radionuclide using an ICP sector field mass spectrometer. The 226Ra concentration of 17 unconfined groundwater samples ranged between 0.2 and 5 ppq, and that of 28 artesian waters between <0.2 and 13ppq. The ICP-MS results conformed satisfactorily to analytical results based on γ-measurements of the 222Rn ingrowth after purging and trapping on super-cooled charcoal. The 226Ra concentrations were positively correlated with the salinity and the dissolved NaCl concentrations. The occurrence of unusually high 226Ra activities is explained by radium release from adsorption sites with increasing salinity. The inferred spatial variability of 222Rn in the Aral Sea and of 222Rn and 226Ra in the groundwater of the Amu Darya Delta is discussed in the context of our own previous hydrochemical studies in the study sites. Relatively low 222Rn activities in the unconfined GW (1–9.5Bq/l) indicate the alluvial sediments hosting the GW to be a low-238U(226Ra) substrate. Positive correlations between U and 226Ra, and U and 222Rn are likely related to locally deposited Fe(Mn)OOH precipitates. The 222Rn activity of the GW, however, distinctly exceeds the 222Rn concentration in the Aral Sea (10mBq/l), in principle, making 222Rn a sensitive tracer for the inflow of GW. The high water volume of the Large Aral Sea and wind induced mixing of its water body, however, hamper the detection of local groundwater inflow.