Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Surficial Redistribution Of Fallout 131iodine In A Small Temperate Catchment, Joshua D. Landis, Nathan T. Hamm, Carl E. Renshaw, W. Brian Dade, Francis J. Magilligan, John D. Gartner

Dartmouth Scholarship

Isotopes of iodine play significant environmental roles, including a limiting micronutrient (¹²⁷I), an acute radiotoxin (¹³¹I), and a geochemical tracer (¹²⁹I). But the cycling of iodine through terrestrial ecosystems is poorly understood, due to its complex environmental chemistry and low natural abundance. To better understand iodine transport and fate in a terrestrial ecosystem, we traced fallout ¹³¹iodine throughout a small temperate catchment following contamination by the 11 March 2011 failure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. We find that radioiodine fallout is actively and efficiently scavenged by the soil system, where it …