MINERALOGICAL AND RADIOACTIVE STUDIES FOR UTILIZATION OF LAKE NASSER SEDIMENTS | ||
| Nuclear Sciences Scientific Journal | ||
| Article 6, Volume 6, Issue 1, 2017, Pages 93-109 PDF (1.98 M) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/nssj.2017.30775 | ||
| Authors | ||
| KANDIL M. KANDIL; GEHAD M. R. MANSOUR; ATEF H. ABD EL AZEEM | ||
| Nuclear Materials Authority,Cairo, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The present study gives a trial to enhancement the management of Lake Nasser (LN) sediments and presents a demonstration of the sediments assessment process through focusing mainly on the sedimentological, minerlogical and radiometric characteristics of LN and the adjacent beach sediments. The study revealed that the increasing of sediments accumulation rate at LN cause many challenges and problems which change the morphological features and formation of the flood plains and inner islands. The occurrence of sediment accumulations and heavy mineral placers in LN onshore sediments is known but no systematic attempts has so far been made to management and explore these heavy minerals. The detailed mineralogical and g-spectrometric studies for Lake Nasser sediments revealed that the grain size distribution in bottom samples dominant by sandy-silty clay in contrast of silty clayey sand and clayey silty sand in the eastern and western banks, respectively. Heavy fraction in the bottom sediments of LN and the adjacent beach indicates relatively low concentrations of the economic heavy minerals (magnetite, hematite, ilmenite, leucoxene, rutile, zircon, garnet and monazite) that varies between 0.61% and 1.22% for LN offshore sediments and ranged between 1.40% and 1.73% for the eastern beach samples where the western beach samples record 1.30% and 1.73%. It follows that their industrial exploitation is not economically profitable, in spite of previous exploratory studies in the survey zone. The radiometric analysis of all samples showed weak level of radioactivity. Lake Nasser bottom samples showed higher radiometric measurement relative to the adjacent beach samples. This may be attributed to the occurrence of monazite in the LN fine sediments that reach up to 0.0039% and also the presence of some metamict zircon. The proposed solution for lake sedimentation problems is to prevent eroded particles from entering the lake in the first place by mechanical dredgers. Utilization of economic minerals occurrence in LN can be facilitated by dredging mud into the lake banks. The mud fertility of the reclaimed landin the area. This process also stops sand dunes progression especially in the western bank. | ||
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