Abstract
Natural ambient radiations are present everywhere due to the spontaneous emissions by radioactive elements. There are two sources of radiations in the earth’s environment: cosmic and terrestrial. Cosmic radiation originates from high-energy cosmic ray particle interaction with the Earth’s atmosphere, and terrestrial radiation comes from the naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) present in the Earth’s crust. Radiometric studies provide a suitable tool for detecting and measuring the natural radiation. Radioactivity measurements are also referred to as baseline measurements when the radioactivity is only from NORM. Baseline measurements provide the background measurements for comparative studies, since background radiation is not the same everywhere. There are some regions in the world with higher levels of radiation, known as high background radiation areas (HBRAs); a few places even have much higher background radiation, and are known as very high background radiation areas (VHBRAs). In this chapter, applications of radioactivity measurements are demonstrated with case studies for various studies, namely characterization of the area as background or HBRAs or VHBRAs, environmental studies for assessing the hazard due to radiation and locating hot springs. Mining and production of uranium also cause environmental radioactivity, termed as technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM). Radiometric studies also provide classification of activity under NORM and TENORM. Some of the recent studies undertaken primarily by us in this regard are discussed along with their implications.
The studies presented in the Chapter reflect the significance of research related to integrated near-surface geophysics for various applications, namely radiometric measurements, contamination studies primarily due to anthropogenic causes, shallow subsurface exploration for economic deposits like shale gas, coal bed methane, and associated rare earths.
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Sengupta, D., Mittal, S., Parial, K. (2014). Radiometric Studies and Base Line Calibrations for NORM and TENORM Studies. In: Sengupta, D. (eds) Recent Trends in Modelling of Environmental Contaminants. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1783-1_1
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