Re: Volcanoes, ash, and Rn

[John Pickering <johnjp@email.sjsu.edu>]

Rob,

When Mt St. Helens blew experienced the major erruption, I was working in
Tacoma, Washington.  I collected ash and had it sent out for evaluation.
The data is no longer available due to my replacement.  However, I recall
many nuclides found in the ash to include short lived nuclides.  I seem to
recall Co-57 amoung the nuclides which found unusual.  Later I had ash
evaluated again at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.  They had environmental
monitoring equipment from Diablo Canyon.

Most of the equipment encapsulated by the ash had significant difficulty
with the intake of the ash.  I see no reason why the ash would not be
inhaled by the people there.  

John
johnjp@email.sjsu.edu


At 12:43 PM 8/6/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Franz,
>
>Having been in New Zealand while Mt Ruhapehu (sp?) was going off, I would
>have to disagree regarding ingestion of Ra.  The air will litterally become
>a fog of ash.  You will breathe it and it will find it's way into your
>body.  Of course the specific activity will be pretty low.  Think of all
>the dirt you ate when you were a kid.
>
>I think it would be interesting to hear about elevated concentrations of Rn
>when Mt St. Helens blew.  We always talk about Rn concentrations elevating
>during a T inversion as it is sucked out of the ground, how about when the
>whole mountain is blown into the air.  Was there a "pulsed" concentration?
>
>>Radium is not harmless, if
>>ingested, but I hardly believe that debris from a volcano would be
>ingested.
>
>
>Rob
>
>
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