Study of soil gas radon variations in the tectonically active Dharamshala and Chamba regions, Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Soil gas radon measurements were made in Chamba and Dharamshala regions of Himachal Pradesh, India, to study the correlation, if any, between the soil gas radon, radium activity concentration of soil, and the geology/active tectonics of the study region. Soil gas radon surveys were conducted around the local fault zones to check their tectonic activities using the soil gas technique. Soil gas radon activity concentration at thirty-five different locations in Dharamshala region has been found to be varying from 13.2 ± 1.5 to 110.8 ± 5.0 kBq m−3 with a geometrical mean of 35.9 kBq m−3 and geometrical standard deviation of 1.8. Radon activity concentration observed in the thirty-seven soil gas samples collected from the Chamba region of Himachal Pradesh varies from 5.2 ± 1.0 to 35.6 ± 2.5 kBq m−3, with geometrical mean of 15.8 kBq m−3 and geometrical standard deviation of 1.6. Average radium activity concentrations in thirty-four soil samples collected from different geological formations of Dharamshala region and Chamba region are found to be 40.4 ± 17 and 38.6 ± 1.7 Bq kg−1, respectively. It has been observed that soil gas radon activity concentration has a wide range of variation in both Dharamshala and Chamba regions, while radium activity concentrations in soil samples are more or less same in both the regions. Moreover, soil gas radon activity concentration has a better positive correlation with the radium activity concentration in soil samples collected from Chamba region as compared to Dharamshala region.