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Study of variation of soil radon exhalation rate with meteorological parameters in Bakreswar–Tantloi geothermal region of West Bengal and Jharkhand, India

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Abstract

Radon gas is the predominant ionizing radiation on earth. Its occurrence is controlled by the presence of uranium in all types of rocks in the earthcrust, apart from local geological features and atmospheric factors which influence its release into the atmosphere. The present work deals with 24 h observation of the dependence of radon exhalation rate from soil on local meteorological parameters at four locations in Bakreswar–Tantloi geothermal region, located in the highly faulted Chhotanagpur Plateau of eastern India. This study is the primary step towards the determination of soil radon exhalation dynamics in this geothermal area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the logistic support of Bose Institute for carrying out this work at Bakreswar, as it has been conducted under the joint collaboration between Bose Institute and Jadavpur University. The authors are grateful to the staff of the Helium Laboratory at Bakreswar for their invaluable help. SC and AD acknowledge the financial help of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, for the fellowship of SC and the UPE-II programme for Jadavpur University which provided funds for instruments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Studies in Environmental Radiation and Archaeological Sciences, Jadavpur University, 188 Raja S.C. Mallick Road, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Saheli Chowdhury & Argha Deb

  2. Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, 188 Raja S.C. Mallick Road, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Saheli Chowdhury & Argha Deb

  3. Centre for Astroparticle Physics and Space Science, Bose Institute, College More, Block-EN, Sector-V, Bidhannagar, Kolkata, 700091, India

    Chiranjib Barman, Sibaji Raha & Debasis Ghose

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  1. Saheli Chowdhury
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Correspondence to Saheli Chowdhury.

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Chowdhury, S., Barman, C., Deb, A. et al. Study of variation of soil radon exhalation rate with meteorological parameters in Bakreswar–Tantloi geothermal region of West Bengal and Jharkhand, India. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 319, 23–32 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-6286-2

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