Abstract or Keywords
The radionuclide Americium-241 ( (super 241) Am) is a thermonuclear byproduct that has the potential to be utilized as a substitute for Cesium-137 ( (super 137) Cs) in a geochronological context. (super 241) Am with a half-life of approximately 432 (+ or -10) years is quickly adsorbed to fine-grained sediments and can be measured by gamma emission using HPGe photon detectors. Sediment cores were analyzed for (super 137) Cs and (super 241) Am, showing similar vertical distribution and concurrent high peak activities. (super 137) Cs has been shown to migrate in organic rich sediments limiting its use in this type of environment as an age-dating tool. Since (super 241) Am is considered to be less mobile, the focus of this study is to determine if (super 241) Am has the potential to be more applicable than (super 137) Cs in organic environments. (super 241) Am could be used in place of, or in correlation with, additional age-dating radioisotopes to provide a useful stratigraphic marker for the height of nuclear testing in the early 1960s.