Natural Radionuclide Applications For Riverine And Coastal Marine Investigations

ABSTRACT: Naturally-occurring radioisotopes are ubiquitous in nature, and as such, there are many opportunities for researchers to use them as environmental tracers. Their associated radioactive decay rates provide an inherent time clock that often makes these radioisotopes more effective chemical tracers than other substances, since they can help assess the temporal component of a particular process. Radioisotopes were employed in this study to examine different coastal oceanographic processes that have far reaching consequences. A review of various measurement methods for assessing Ra-226 concentrations, a valuable tracer employed throughout most of this dissertation, is presented. This is followed by applying natural radioisotopes to study various oceanographic processes in China, Hawaii, and a river system in the southeastern United States.