AMERICIUM (241AM) AS A PRACTICAL GEOCHRONOLOGICAL TOOL

The radionuclide Americium-241 (²⁴¹Am) is a thermonuclear byproduct that has the potential to be utilized as a substitute for Cesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs) in a geochronological context. ²⁴¹Am with a half-life of approximately 432 (±10) years is quickly adsorbed to fine-grained sediments and can be measured by gamma emission using HPGe photon detectors. Sediment cores were analyzed for ¹³⁷Cs and ²⁴¹Am, showing similar vertical distribution and concurrent high peak activities.¹³⁷Cs has been shown to migrate in organic rich sediments limiting its use in this type of environment as an age-dating tool. Since ²⁴¹Am is considered to be less mobile, the focus of this study is to determine if ²⁴¹Am has the potential to be more applicable than ¹³⁷Cs in organic environments. ²⁴¹Am could be used in place of, or in correlation with, additional age-dating radioisotopes to provide a useful stratigraphic marker for the height of nuclear testing in the early 1960s.