Alum shales

Alaun-schiefer, m., -schiefererz, n. alum slate, alum shale. -seife, /. aluminous soap, -sieden, n. alum boiling, alum making, -sieder, m. alum boiler, -siederei, /. alum works, -stein, -spat, m. alum stone, alunite. alaunt, p.a. alumed. 

Black shale Uraniferous alum shale in Sweden, the Chatanooga shale in the USA, the deposit of Gera-Ronneburg in the eastern part of Germany. 

Narwal R.P., Singh B.R. Effect of organic materials on partitioning, extractability and plant uptake of metals in an alum shale soil. Water Air Soil Pollut 1998 103 405M21. 

For each house measured, a questionaire was filled in by the householder. Among other things, the householder was asked to give the year of construction for the house. In Fig. 3, the mean Rn-222 concentration is plotted against the age of the house. In this plot, alum shale areas are excluded. As seen from this figure, we did not find any systematic variations with the age of the house. 

Where the lowest values occur, the ground water is higher than the alum shale layer. 

In the granite and alum shale areas, exhalation measurements above the ground were well correlated with the indoor air measurements. In the esker area, the exhalation rates were normal, and the high indoor Rn-222 concentrations here are believed to be caused by convective flew due to underpresure in the houses. (Stranden et al, 1985). 

The highest indoor Rn-226 concentrations occur in areas with alum shale in the ground. Measurements in these areas yield a good agreement between exhalation rates and indoor Rn-222 concentrations. Even in granite areas, high indoor Rn-222 concentrations may occur, but no extreme values were found in such areas. These findings are also confirmed by the field studies. 

Another difference between the 1950s and the 1980s is that people now live in other types of houses. 70 % of the population lived in wooden houses in 1950 compared with 40 % today. 3 % lived in houses built of aerated concrete based on alum-shale, in 1950. In 1980 the figure was about 10 %. These differences are also an indication on an increased collective radon concentration during the period. 

All these comparisons support the hypothesis of an increase. The arithmetic means and thereby the collective doses seem to have increased by about a factor of four to six. If the aerated concrete based on alum-shale had not been used, the country-wide average has been estimated to be 30 % lower (Swedjemark 1985). 

In the past, it was thought that building materials were the principal sources of indoor radon (UNSCEAR, 1977). However, most recent studies have shown that with the exception of some unusual materials such as Swedish alum-shale concrete, the effect of building materials on indoor radon is small. 

There are obviously higher values in Scandinavia than in southern Europe and in many local areas such as Cornwall in the United Kingdom (Cliff et al., 1987) there are some substantially higher concentration areas. In Sweden there is a clear effect of alum shale concrete on indoor radon levels both from the perspective of increasing the concentrations indoors, but also because of an increased percentage of the population living in houses of such construction (Swedjemark et al., 1987). Thus, the largest fraction of people live in houses with radon concentrations below 110 Bq/nr. 

Other Sources of Selenium. In 1820 Leopold Gmelin prepared pure selenium from the fuming sulfuric acid of Graslitz [Kretzlitz] in Bohemia, and in the following year Buch and Wohler showed that this selenium came originally from the particles of iron pyrites dispersed in the alum shale from which the sulfuric acid had been prepared. 

In addition to their energetic value, oil shales have also been used as sources for other materials, such as alumina, ammonium sulphate, phosphate, sodium carbonate, S, U, V, and Zn (Murray 1974). In the early 17th century, potassium aluminium sulphate was extracted from the Alum Shales in Sweden for use in the tanning and textile industry. It was only by the 19th century that hydrocarbons were being extracted from these Alum Shales while, in the 1960s, their content of U and V was being exploited (Dyni 2000). 

Lower Ordovician Dictyonema shale, also referred to as Dictyonema argillite, graptolitic argillite, alum shale. 

Typical activities of building materials, such as bricks and concrete, in the UK and USA are in a similar range (20 to 50 Bq kg-1) (Nero, 1983), but granite used in older houses in Cornwall has about 100 Bq kg -1 of radium (O Riordan et al., 1982). In Sweden, Hultqvist (1956) found about 1000 Bq kg-1 radium equivalent gamma activity in lightweight concrete made from alum shale. 

Dahl J. E. P., Hallberg R., and Kaplan I. R. (1988) Effects of irradiation from uranium decay on extractable organic matter in the Alum Shales of Sweden. Org. Geochem. 12, 559-571. 

Radon in houses can come from building materials, the soil under the house, the water, and the domestic gas. Some materials such as alum shale and phospho-gypsum have significantly higher radium concentrations than others and can thus cause increased internal radon concentrations to increase. Ventilation rates in basements and in houses in general can reduce exposure significantly. 

Lindgreen H, Drits VA, Sakharov BA, Salyn AL, Dainyak LG (2000) lllite-smectite structural changes during metamorphism in black Cambrian Alum shales from the Baltic area. Am Mineral 85 1223-1238 Lindgreen H, Jacobsen H, Jacobsen HJ (1991) Diagenetic structural transformations in North Sea Jurassic illite/smectite. Clays Clay Minerals 39 54-69... 

SvENKE, E. Recovery of uranium from uranium-bearing alum shale. Proc. 1st Jnt, Conf. on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Geneva, 1955. Paper 784. 

Bergman says Rinman heated the alum pans at Garph)rtta with burning alum shale as fuel instead of wood. He says the reddish alum from Brunswick contained cobalt Chinese alum was free from iron. ... 

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