Abstract:
137Cs activities are measured for the 17 sediment cores collected from the coastal zones of the Liao River in order to disclose the distribution patterns and geochemical behaviors of
137Cs. It is found that
137Cs activity concentrations in the surface sediments vary in a significant spatial range from 1.03±1.01 to 15.68±1.13 mBq/g around an average of 6.727±0.251 mBq/g(1σ) attributing to the changes in vegetation types. Highest
137Cs activity concentration (15.686±1.131 mBq/g) is observed in the sediment core of Z-9 where reeds predominate natural vegetation and human activity is rare. The vertical distribution pattern of
137Cs activity concentrations falls into three categories, one-peak curve, two-peak curve and irregular curve. For the two-peak curves of
137Cs activity concentration, there is a sub-peak of
137Cs activity concentration in the sediment profiles except the maximum of
137Cs. As to the irregular curves of
137Cs (LH-15, LH-18), the
137Cs activity concentrations decreases from the sub-layer to the bottom and part of the surface sediment was missing, or for another possibility bottom sediment was putting on the surface layer by anthropogenic activities Sedimentation rates are calculated with the initial
137Cs appearance value (1954) up to the maximum value (1963) of the sediment cores. The average value of sedimentation rates (0.48 to 1.63 cm/a) deduced from
137Cs maximum value seem to be lower than the rates (0.51 to 1.77 cm/a) calculated from
137Cs initial appearance. The
137Cs inventories vary from 980±46 to 6094±92 Bq/m
2, with an average of 2278±42 Bq/m
2. Furthermore, the average
137Cs inventories of the study are higher than the global fallout flux 1310 Bq/m
2 (
137Cs activity was decay corrected to 2015). This result clearly indicates that the
137Cs atmospheric precipitation is the main source of
137Cs in the region of Liao River Estuary.