Aeroradioactivity Survey and A Real Geology of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Area, Tennessee and Kentucky (ARMS-I)
Abstract
An airborne radioactivity survey was made of the area around the Oak Ridge National Laboratory near Knoxville, Tenn. The survey area is a square, 100 miles on a side, centered on the town of Oak Ridge. Parallel flight lines totaling 10,000 traverse miles were flown in a northwest to southeast direction at a flight-line interval of 1 mile and an altitude of 500 ft above the ground. The survey was made by the U. S. Geological Survey for the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission as part of its nationwide program of airborne radioactivity surveys of all nuclear installations. The area is composed of four physiographic subdivisions. They are, from west to east, the Highland Rim, the Cumberland Plateau, the Valley and Ridge province, and the Great Smoky Mountains. The Highland Rim has the lowest average radioactivity level, 300 to 500 cps (counts per second) and the Great Smoky Mountains the highest, 1000 to 1100 cps. Individual geologic units in the Highland Rim, Cumberland Plateau, and the Great Smoky Mountains are not well defined by the radioactivity data. However, the physiographic subdivisions, with the exception of the Highland Rim, can be separated on the basis of radioactivity level or pattern of radioactivity units. In the Pennsylvanian rocks of the Cumberland Plateau the ratio of shale to sandstone and conglomerate increases from southwest to northeast and from northwest to southeast. This is reflected in the radioactivity data in which the radioactivity levels increase in the same directions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1962
- Accession Number
- ADA437771
Entities
People
- Robert G. Bates