Abstract
The term ‘environmental isotopes’ was proposed some time ago for a number of globally distributed isotopes of various elements. One of the environmental isotopes is tritium, or 3H, of cosmic ray origin. During the hydrogen bomb tests in 1952 to 1962, it was released into the atmosphere in quantities which were enormous compared with the cosmic ray production. It spread globally and although it was consequently present everywhere in the environment, it can hardly be called ‘natural’. The same is true for 14C and a number of other radioactive isotopes which are not discussed here.
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References
Data from the WMO-IAEA global network of sampling stations for environmental isotopes are published regularly in the Technical Report Series of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. The following reports covering the years 1953 to 1975 have been published. Nos. 96, 117, 120, 147, 165 and 192.
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Further reading
Eriksson, E. (1958) The possible use of tritium for estimating groundwater storage, Tellus, 10, 472–478.
Lal, D. and Peters, B. (1962) Cosmic ray produced isotopes and their application to problems in geophysics. Progress in Elementary Particle and Cosmic Ray Physics. (J. G. Wilson and S. A. Wouthuysen, eds.), vol.6, North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam.
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© 1985 Erik Eriksson
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Eriksson, E. (1985). Environmental isotopes in hydrology and hydrochemistry. In: Principles and Applications of Hydrochemistry. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4836-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4836-5_5
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