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Mechanisms For The Incorporation And Distribution Of Radionuclides In Near-Surface Fallout, Marc Alan Fitzgerald

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Fallout is the radioactive glass formed from a mixture of vaporized anthropogenic materials with proximate environmental material. These glassy byproducts constitute a compositional record of environmental materials such as soil and vapor precursors that are responsible for chemical heterogeneity in the glasses. The work of this dissertation is to untangle these different sources of compositional heterogeneity, distinguishing low-abundance vaporized anthropogenic-rich material from natural compositions, in order examine soil behavior and chemical evolution during fallout formation. Unfortunately, mixing convolutes the multivariate elemental relationships in these melts due to overlapping element abundances that might distinguish different source materials and chemical behaviors, making …