PIXE analysis of sand and soil from Ulaanbaatar and Karakurum, Mongolia

Twenty-one sand and soil samples were collected at the Surface from 22 to 25 June 2007 at sampling sites from Ulaanbaatar to Karakurum, Mongolia. The sand samples were collected from constantly changing sand duties which may still contain salt from prehistoric oceans. The dry sand and soil samples were processed for PIXE and PIGE analyses. A clear division between soils and sand become apparent in the silicon results. Concentrations of all bulk elements in human habitation samples and of Si. Al. K and Fe in dry lake/flood plain samples are similar to those in the soils and sands. Among elements which could be regarded Lis being at trace concentrations the average S concentration in the soils is 0.9 kg(-1) whereas it is not detected in the sand samples. Zinc and Cu Concentrations are both higher in the soils than the sands and Lire strongly correlated. A Surprising presence of uranium at a Concentration of 350 mg kg(-1) was detected in the PIXE measurement on one of the dry lake samples. Gamma spectrometry confirmed the presence of U in this sample and also at a lower level in it sample from the lake shore, but in none of the other samples. Further, the gamma spectrometry showed that U-238 decay products were present only at a level corresponding to about 3 mg kg(-1) U for a system in radioactive equilibrium, a figure which is typical for U in the earth's crust. Disequilibria between U-238 and its decay products Occur naturally but Such it high degree of separation at high concentration would be unique if confirmed. PIXE and PIGE measurements of these samples highlight the difficulty in correlating trace element measurements with Occurrence of indicators of sea salt in air particulate samples. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.