Uranium migration in a sedimentological phosphatic environment in Northern Palmyrides, Al-Awabed area, Syria

Abstract

In previously published research, a factor analysis approach has been applied to airborne spectrometric data of the Al-Awabed area, Northern Palmyrides, Syria. A model of four factors (F1–F4) has proven to be sufficient to represent the acquired data, where 94% of the total data variance is explained. A scored lithological map including 11 radiometric units is established. Uranium migration trends have been determined for the first time through airborne spectrometric data of the study region, where different regional maps explaining the migration behavior have been established. A radioactive-geological model of such a migration is established and clearly shows that directions of uranium migration are strongly influenced by network drainage, topography, and fracturing systems in the region. Lithology of the 11 studied units also plays a dominant role in the rate of uranium migration. It was found that the four lithological phosphatic units P1–P4 are the main uranium sources in the study region, where the uranium migration is outward from these regions. The other seven lithological units C1–C3, M1–M4 are successively enriched by uranium during the geological evolution of the crust, where uranium migration is in an inward direction. It was also shown that uranium migration has occurred from its source for a short distance, limited by the boundaries of the lithological units which surround the phosphatic units. This finding is important from a prospecting and exploration point of view, and suggests that future uranium investigation activities are close to the phosphatic sources, if this process is creating the uranium distribution.