Potential of natural gamma-ray spectrometry for mapping and environmental monitoring of black-sand beach deposits on the Northern coast of Sinai, Egypt

The concentrations and distributions of naturally occurring radioactive materials were studied with the aim of detecting and mapping radioactive anomalies as well as monitoring the environment for black-sand beach deposits in Northern Sinai, Egypt. For this purpose, ground gamma-ray spectrometric surveys were conducted using a portable GS-512 spectrometer, with an NaI (Tl) detector, on an area 77.5 km(2) in surface area located between the cities of Rafah and Elareish on the Mediterranean Sea coast. The results revealed that the black-sand beach deposits could be differentiated according to their total-count (TC) radioactivity into five normally distributed interpreted radiometric lithologic (IRL) units denoted by U1, U2, U3, U4 and U5. The computed characteristic TC radiometric statistics of these five IRL units range from 4.67 to 9.96 Ur for their individual arithmetic means. The computed arithmetic means for the three radioelements K, eU and eTh reach 0.46 , 2.25 and 6.17 ppm, respectively for the whole study area. Monitoring the environmental effects of radioelement concentrations on the study area showed that the mean natural equivalent radiation dose rate from the terrestrial gamma-radiation of the whole area attains 0.33 mSv y(1). This average value remains on the safe side and within the maximum permissible safe radiation dose (1.0 mSv y(1)) without harm to the individual, except at three scattered points reaching more than these values. Some of the local inhabitants in the region sometimes use black sands as a building material. Consequently, they are not recommended for use as building materials, because the inhabitants will, then, receive a relatively high radioactive dose generated mainly by monazite and zircon minerals, two of the main constituents of black sands.