USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

Authors

Alanna Lecher

First Advisor

James Krest, Ph.D. College of Arts and Science

Publisher

University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Document Type

Thesis

Date Available

March 2012

Publication Date

2010

Date Issued

April 2010

Abstract

Radium isotopes have been used in years past to observe and understand coastal mixing processes and submarine groundwater discharge. There are four radium isotopes used as natural tracers: Ra-224, Ra-223, Ra-226, and Ra-228, with half lives ranging in length from a few days to over a thousand years, which makes them applicable tracers of process of a variety of lengths of time. In this project, I simulated the flow of these isotopes through submarine groundwater discharge into coastal and offshore waters. I constructed a model of the study area, using a computer program called Visual MODFLOW, which uses finite difference methods to model groundwater flow. I then ran the model, and determined the results of the model support the excess radium activity seen offshore, as attributed to submarine groundwater discharge.

Comments

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Honors Program, University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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