Abstract
A marked increase in the concentration of238U in rain was observed at Fayetteville (36 °N, 94 °W), Arkansas, after the 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The fallout of natural uranium observed during the summer months of 1980 can be attributed to the 18 May 1980 events, which ejected an amount of ash material on the order of 4 km3 or about 8·1015 grams into the atmosphere.234U and235U were found to be highly enriched relative to238U in several rain samples collected at Fayetteville, Arkansas, prior to the volcanic eruption. The anomalous uranium seems to have originated from the Soviet satellite Cosmos-954, which fell over Canada, on 24 January 1978. The effect of the 25th Chinese nuclear test, which occurred on 16 October 1980, on the concentrations of uranium isotopes in rain appears to have been insignificant.
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Kuroda, P.K., Essien, I.O. & Sandoval, Dn. Fallout of uranium isotopes from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Articles 84, 23–32 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02038178
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02038178