Soil types and their relations with radon concentration levels in Middle Governorate of Gaza Strip, Palestine

Khalid Fathi Ubeid, Khaled Ahmed Ramadan

Abstract


Determination of natural radioactivity has been carried out in surface and core agricultural soil samples collected from various sites in the Middle Governorate – Gaza Strip, Palestine. Mechanical and chemical analysis has been done to determine soil characteristics. Radon activity concentration measurements were carried out using solid state nuclear tracks detectors, Cr-39. The mechanical analysis results show that they belong to two classes, sandy loam and loamy sand. The sandy loam soil was observed in the eastern side of the study area, whereas the loamy sand was observed in western and middle parts. The radon concentration levels were higher in core samples and were proportionate to the soil depth. Also they were higher in sandy loam than loamy sand soil samples. The radon concentration levels had a positive correlation with fine grains (clay- to silt-size) of soil sample which translocated from upper to lower horizons of soil during its development. Additionally, there was a positive correlation with pH and water content, whereas a negative correlation was observed with organic matter and potassium contents. The positive correlation referred to a large specific surface of fine grains which were located in lower horizons of soil and were able to adsorb more water and consequently led to high radon concentration levels.


Keywords


grain-size distribution; radon; pollution; Gaza Strip; Palestine

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abed, A., Al Weshahy, S., 1999. Geology of Palestine. Palestinian Hydrogeological Group, Palestine, Jerusalem, p. 461.

Abumurad, K.M., Atrallah, M., Kullab, M.K., Ismail, A., 1997. Determination of radon soil concentration levels in the governorate of Irbid, Jordan. Radiat. Meas., 28: 585–588.

Al-Jundi, J., B.A. Al-Bataina, B.A., Abu-Rukah, Y., Shehadeh, H.M., 2003. Natural radioactivity concentrations in soil samples along the Amman Aqaba Highway, Jordan. Radiat. Meas., 36: 555–560.

Baixeras, C., Erlandsson, B., Font, LI, Jonsson, G., 2001. Radon emanation from soil samples. Radiat. Meas., 34: 441–443.

Bartov, Y., Arkin, Y., 1980. Regional Stratigraphy of Israel. A guide to geological mapping. Geological Survey of Israel, Current Research, 38–41.

Bartov, Y., Arkin, Y., Lewy, Z., Mimran, Y., 1981. Regional stratigraphy of Israel: A guide to geological mapping. Geological Survey of Israel, Stratigraphic Chart.

Baykara, O., Dogru, M., 2006. Measurements of radon and uranium concentration in water and soil samples from East Anatolian Active Fault Systems, Turkey. Radiat. Meas., 41: 362–367.

Baykara, O., Dogrua, M., Inceozb, M., Aksoyb, E., 2005. Measurements of radon emanation from soil samples in triple-junction of North and East Anatolian active faults systems in Turkey. Radiat. Meas., 39: 209–212.

Blott, S.J., Pye, K., 2001. Gradistat : a grain size distribution and statistics package for analysis of unconsolidated sediments. Earth Surf. Processes Landforms, 26: 1237–1248.

Duggal, V., Mehera, R., Rani, A., 2015. Study of Radium and Radon Exhalation Rate in Soil Samples from Areas of Northern Rajasthan. J. Geol. Soc. India Journal Geological Society of India, 86: 331–336.

El-Ghossain, M.O., Abu Shammala, A.A., 2007. Radioactivity measurements in tap water in Gaza Strip (Al-Naser Area). J. Assoc. Arab Univ. Basic Appl. Sci., 11: 2–26.

El-Ghossain, M.O., Abu Shammala, A.A., 2012. Radioactivity measurements in tap water in Gaza Strip (Al-Naser Area). Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Basic and Applied Sciences, 11: 2–26

Faheem, M., Matiullah., 2008. Radon exhalation and its dependence on moisture content from samples of soil and building materials. Radiat. Meas., 43: 1458–1462.

Frechen, M., Neber, A., Tsatskin, A., Boenigk, W., Ronen, A., 2004. Chronology of Pleistocene sedimentary cycles in the Carmel coastal plain of Israel. Quatern. Int., 121: 41–52.

Fujiyoshi, R., Sawamura, S., 2004. Mesoscale variability of vertical profies of environmental radionuclides (40K, 226Ra, 210Pb and 137Cs) in temperate forest soils in Germany. Science of the Total Environment, 320: 177–188

Galili, E., Zviely, D., Ranon, A., Mienis, H.K., 2007. Beach deposits of MIS 5e high sea stand as indicators for tectonic stability of the Carmel coastal plain, Israel. Quaternary Sci. Rev., 26: 2544–2557.

Guo Q., Cheng J. 2005. Indoor thoron and radon concentrations in Zhuhai, China. J. Nucl. Sci. Technol., 42: 588–591.

Horowitz, A., 1975. The Quaternary Stratigraphy and Paleogeography of Israel. Paléorient., 3: 47–100.

Jonsson, G., 2001. Soil radon depth dependence. Radiat. Meas., 34: 415–418.

Khatir, S.A., El-Ganawi, A.A., Ahmed, M.O., El-Khaangi, F.A., 1998. Distribution of some natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in Sudanese harbour sediments. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem., 237: 103–107.

Khayrat, A.H., Oliver, M.A., Durrani, S.A., 2001. The effect of soil particle size on soil radon concentration. Radiat. Meas., 34: 365–371.

Matiullah, A., Ur-Rehman, Sh., Ur-Rehman, A., Faheem, M., 2004. Measurement of radioactivity in the soil of Behawalpur division, Pakistan. Radiat. Prot. Dosim., 112: 443–447.

Nelson, M.S., Rittenour, T.M., 2015. Using grain-size characteristics to model soil water content: Application to dose-rate calculation for luminescence dating. Radiat. Meas., 81: 142–149.

Ramli, A.T., Wahab, A., Hussein, M.A., Wood, A.K., 2005. Environmental 238U and 232Th concentration measurements in an area of high level natural background radiation at Palong, Johor, Malaysia. J. Environ. Radioact., 80: 287–304.

Rasas, M.F., Yassin, S.S., Shabat, M.M., 2004. Measurements of the radon-222 and its daughter`s concentrations throughout Gaza Strip, Palestine. Proceeding of the Environmental Physics Conference, 24–28.

Schubert, M., Peña, P., Balcázar, M., Meissner, R., Lopez, A., Flores, J.H., 2005 . Determination of radon distribution patterns in the upper soil as a tool for the localization of subsurface NAPL contamination. Radiation Measurements, 40: 633–637

Shafi-ur-Rehman, Matiullah, Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Rahman, S., 2006. Studying 222Rn exhalation rate from soil and sand samples using CR-39 detector. Radiat. Meas., 41: 708–713.

Shweikani, R., Giaddui, T.G., Durrani, S.A., 1995. The effect of soil parameters on the radon concentration values in the environment. Radiation Measurements, 25: 581–584

Sroor, A., El-Bahi, S.M., Ahmed, F., Abdel-Haleem, A.S., 2001. Natural radioactivity and radon exhalation rate of soil in southern Egypt. Appl. Radiat. Isot., 55: 873–879.

Tzortzis, M., Tsertos, H., Christofides, S., Christodoulides, G., 2003. Gamma-ray measurements of naturally occurring radioactive samples from Cyprus characteristic geological rocks. Radiat. Meas., 37: 221–229.

Ubeid, K.F., Al-Agha, M.R., 2016. Assessment of Impact Sewage Effluents on The Coastal Water Quality around The Mouth of Wadi Gaza (Gaza and Middle Governorates, Gaza Strip, Palestine). J. Environ. Earth Scs., 10: 84–103.

Ubeid, K.F., Ramadan, K.A., 2017. Activity concentration and spatial distribution of radon in beach sands of Gaza Strip, Palestine. JMES, 9: 19–28.

Ubeid, K.F., 2010. Marine lithofacies and depositional zones analysis along coastal ridges in Gaza Strip,Palestine. JGG, 2: 68–76.

Ubeid, K.F., 2011. The nature of the Pleistocene-Holocene palaeosols in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Geologos, 17, 163–173.

Ubeid, K.F., 2013. The origin, nature and stratigraphy of palaeosols in Wadi Es-Salqa (Gaza Strip, Palestine). SCG, 29: 63–78.

UNSCEAR, 2000. Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation. Report to General Assembly, with Scientific Annexes. United Nations, New York.

Veiga, R., Sanches, N., Anjos, R., 2006. Measurement of natural radioactivity in Brazilian beach sands. Radiat. Meas., 41: 189–196.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/pjss.2020.53.1.55
Date of publication: 2020-06-22 04:38:02
Date of submission: 2019-01-21 15:46:37


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1537
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 1602

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Khalid Fathi Ubeid, Khaled Ahmed Ramadan

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.