Dating of ice cores from Vernagtferner (Austria) with fission products and lead-210

Fission product (90Sr_ 90y, I37CS, total beta) and 2tOPb_210pO activities were measured in core samples from the temperate vernagtferner (3150 m altitude, Oetztal Alps, Austria). The results show that the investigated fission products are transported with water resulting from melting processes, and are sorbed on dust or dirt horizons. These products are, therefore, not suited for dating temperate glaciers. 210Pb is also transported with water and displaced from its original deposition. However, despite large fluctuations, the specific activity of 210Pb decreases with depth, and can be used to estimate accumulation rates and the age of the ice. The average annual accumulation rate amounts to about 80 cm water equivalent, and the deepest sample (81 m i. e. "" 65 m w. e.) was deposited in the beginning of this century. These results agree with data obtained from other observations on this glacier and show that the 210Pb_method is suitable to date temperate glaciers, if the ice cores cover a time interval of about 100 years (i. e. "" 4 half-lives of 210Pb). The surface activity of 210Pb was found to be 5 ± I dpm per kg of ice in agreement with other locations in the Alps and with measurements of fresh snow

The Impact of the Chernobyl Accident on a River/Groundwater Aquifer

The radionuclides 99mTc, 103Ru, 131I, 132Te, 134Cs and 137Cs, resulting from fallout from the damaged nuclear power plant at Chernobyl (USSR) were measured several times between May 2nd and 20th, 1986, in the River Glatt (Zürich, Switzerland) and in the adjacent shallow groundwater stream. Samples from the river and from different groundwater wells were filtered (0.45, 0.20, 0.05 Mm). The resulting water and the filters were assayed by 7-ray spectroscopy. For all these nuclides the main radioactivity ( > 75%) of the river water was found in the water passing the 0.05 Mm-filter. The fraction > 0.45 Mm contained the main particulate activity. Upon infiltration of river water into the groundwater stream iodine, ruthenium and tellurium are not, or only slightly sorbed, probably due to the formation of anionic or neutral species, whereas cesium is completely retained by the sediments. Particulate ( > 0.05 Mm) infiltration from the river into the groundwater is a negligible process