Quick soil sampling question for BRAWM

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2011-09-02 11:01

Dear BRAWM team/ Mark,

I want to get some soil samples tested from the Northwest Pacific coast and am wondering what depth you used for your soil samples? And does the sampling depth vary with type of soil? I noticed that the Japanese citizen soil sampling project used 5cm depth in general and 15cm for sand--presumably because radionuclides percolate down more easily in sandy substrate. Given that it is over 5 months since the highest concentrations of radionuclides were released, and we had an incredibly long, wet spring with above-average rain, at what depth do you recommend the soil samples be taken? Thanks so much for your help, as always!!

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We have not yet had a

Submitted by bandstra on Tue, 2011-09-06 17:37.

We have not yet had a specific protocol for our soil sampling. The soil samples from Alameda were all taken from a depth of only 1 inch, while other samples have been from 1 inch to 4 inches in depth.

It turns out that cesium readily sticks to organic material in the soil and migrates very slowly. From the literature I have seen, those guidelines you mentioned are about right for capturing all of the newly-deposited cesium.

That said, I am going to take some soil samples from different depths and try to confirm that ~5 cm is the maximum depth that the cesium has reached, at least here in the Bay Area.

Could you provide a link to the citizen soil sampling project in Japan? That sounds very interesting.

Mark [BRAWM Team Member]

Hi Mark, thanks very much

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2011-09-07 00:01.

Hi Mark,

thanks very much for your response and for checking soil samples at different depths! Here is the link to the data by the Japanese citizen-driven soil sampling project: http://www.radiationdefense.jp/en/investigation
Best, I.