Atmospheric deposition of 7Be by rain events, in central Argentina

JURI AYUB, J.; DI GREGORIO, D.E.; HUCK, H.; VELASCO, R. H.; RIZZOTTO, M.

AIP CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

American Institute of Physics

Año: 2008 p. 107 - 111

0094-243X

Beryllium-7 is a natural radionuclide that enters into the ecosystems through wet and dry depositions and has numerous environmental applications in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Atmospheric wet deposition of 7Be was measured in central Argentina. Rain traps were installed (1 m above ground) and individual rain events have been collected. Rain samples were filtered and analyzed by gamma spectrometry. The gamma counting was undertaken using a 1.033 kg intrinsic high-purity natural germanium crystal built by Princeton Gamma-Tech. The cryostat was made from electroformed high-purity copper using ultralow-background technology. The gamma detector efficiency was determined using a water solution with known amounts of chemical compounds containing long-lived natural radioisotopes, 176Lu, 138La and 40K. All rain samples of around 400 ml were counted during 1 day. The 7Be detection limit for the present measurements was as low as 0.2 Bq l-1. Thirtytwo rain events were sampled and analyzed (November 2006-May 2007). The measured values show that the events corresponding to low rainfall (< 20 mm) are characterized by significantly higher activity concentrations (Bq l-1). The activity concentration of each individual event varied from 0.8 to 3.5 Bq l-1, while precipitations varied between 4 and 70 mm. The integrated activity by event of 7Be was fitted with a model that takes into account the precipitation amount and the elapsed time between two rain events. The integrated activities calculated with this model show a good agreement with experimental values