[Geysers] Re: Radioactive rodents on the Pitchstone

[Bill Johnson]

This has apparently been studied at least slightly, and another paper is by
R. Howald (or Howlad, sources differ), "'N22 HOWALD, Reed Montana state
University Radioactivity from Pitchstone Plateau area of YNP.' 1982", cited
in the YNP archives, as reached by
http://www.nps.gov/yell/historyculture/upload/natural.pdf -- Lee W may have
easier and more complete access to this than the rest of us.

This gets pretty close to what I do for a living (or did before I became a
useless paper pusher...), and I'd like to learn more of what actually
happened in this study and any others like it.  The notion of radioactive
critters fogging photographic film seems far-fetched, to put it mildly.
However, naturally-occurring potassium contains about 1% K-40, a long-lived
radioactive isotope easily detected with modern sensors (and the bane of us
folks who do low-level detection because it's in natural background and you
can't get rid of it).  K-40 is therefore present in living things in tiny
quantities, whether on the Pitchstone Plateau or elsewhere.  *Really* long
exposures would be necessary to see it on photographic film, though.  Radon
in rodents is not a credible source of photographic film fogging for various
reasons.

One of the pages that cites that Howald (Howlad? Howard) study says
something to the effect that the basalts of the Pitchstone Plateau contain
"two to three times" as much radioactivity as rocks elsewhere at YNP.  To
this, all that I can say is "big deal."  There are any number of places in
the world where you can get in a car and drive for five minutes, and produce
order-of-magnitude variations in natural background; I live in one of them
(Jemez Mountains of New Mexico) which just happens to have geology very
similar to YNP.

This whole thing strikes me as much ado about nothing, but the scientist in
me is interested in learning more about it, just out of curiosity.  Other
links appreciated.

-- Bill, speaking only for himself.

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 8:46 PM, Ruth & Leslie Quinn <
ruthleslie.ynp at gmail.com> wrote:

>      I found the source where I think the original paper on this subject
> is located. It's:
> Linn, Robert M., editor, *Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Scientific
> Research in the National Parks* (U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S.
> Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1976, 2 volumes, 1325 pages). I
> don't recall exactly where in there the paper is, but I'm pretty sure I saw
> it in there once upon a time.
> Leslie Quinn
>
>
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