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| Titel |
Redistribution of radioactive mine wastes by slushflows and other processes
in small mountain river basin in Russian Subarctics |
| VerfasserIn |
Ekaterina Garankina, Vladimir Belyaev, Maxim Ivanov, Fedor Romanenko, Artem Gurinov, Egor Tulyakov, Natalia Kuzmenkova |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2017
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 19 (2017) |
| Datensatznummer |
250138128
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2017-1054.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The Khibiny Mountains located in central part of the Kola Peninsula (Northern European
Russia) are characterized by harsh climatic conditions and frequent occurrence of hazardous
or even catastrophic processes. Most widespread of those are snow avalanches taking place
every year and slushflows with average recurrence interval of about 10 years. The latter
represent specific type of hyperconcentrated gravitational flow of oversaturated mixture
of snow and water (20 to 70%) with relatively low sediment concentration (up to
10-15%). Most often slushflows form during spring snowmelt in small mountainous
basins (in most cases up to 3-6 km2) with thick snowpacks or snow dams caused
by avalanches in stream channels. Typically observed volumes vary in a range of
20000-40000 m3, while rare catastrophic events can reach 200000-500000 m3.
Kinetic energy of frontal wave that can be up to several meters high and concentrates
most of the largest debris is most likely lower than that of typical debris flow of
similar size, mainly because of much lower slushflow density (900-1200 kg m−3).
Nevertheless, rare occasional measurements of front wave velocity gave dramatic
values of 20-25 m s−1 maximum. Such characteristics combined with unpredictable
rapid formation make slushflows definitely hazardous processes that can cause
serious damage to industrial and residential infrastructure as well as injuries or
causalities to people. For example, the Khibiny Mountains have at least 200 locations
where formation of slushflows was detected at least ones over the last 50 years.
Widespread constructions and communications associated with intensive exploration
of mineral resources as well as growing interest to the area as touristic attraction
for skiing and other wintertime activities make the Khibiny Mountains an area of
serious geomorphic hazards associated with slushflows. In this particular study, we
considered the Hackman basin where heavy debris flows occur at least ones per several
decades. One of the unique features of that basin is that there was radioactive ore
mine active in late 1930s on one of the steep valley sides. The mine was active only
for several years as the production of radioactive minerals appeared to be much
lower than expected. However, mine wastes are still remaining there as scree slopes
on right valley side in its middle reach under several mine entrances. Colluvial
material on these screes is highly enriched by several natural radionuclides including
members of the 232Th decay chain. We have made an attempt to use this feature for
fingerprinting sediment redistribution along the valley by slushflows and fluvial
processes. Results of gamma-spectrometric analysis of finer sediment fractions from
different geomorphic settings within the Hackman basin have shown that there is a
systematic non-uniform spatial distribution of 232Th decay chain natural radionuclides
closely related to its geological background and geomorphological structure. It proves
that natural lithogenic radionuclide content in clastic sediments can be used for
fingerprinting of slushflows debris sources and sinks and, possibly for distinguishing
between in situ slushflow deposits and those partly reworked by later fluvial activities. |
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