International Journal of Pure and Applied Physics. ISSN 0973-1776 Volume 13, Number 1 (2017), pp. 209-214 © Research India Publications http://www.ripublication.com HETEROGENEITY OF RADIOACTIVITY IN SOIL FROM VARKALA, KERALA S.R. Soniya, S. Monica, A.K. Visnu Prasad , P.J. Jojo* Center for Advanced Research in Physical Sciences, Department of Physics, Fatima Mata National College (Autonomous), Kollam, India * Corresponding author: E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract measured specific activity in soil samples show a wide range of activity with certain radioactive There exist monazite sand-bearing placer pockets in the region. The results indicate the deposits causing high background radiation necessity of an in depth study in the region. along its long coastline of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India. The extent and effects of the Keywords: Gamma ray spectrometer, Specific radioactivity in this region is well studied and Activity, Radium equivalent activity, Gamma are available in literature. Other regions along absorbed dose rate. the coast are assumed to have normal radiation levels. Still, it has been observed that certain regions along the coast have regions of high INTRODUCTION radioactivity with a highly heterogeneous nature of distribution. We have made a brief Radionuclides occurring naturally in building investigation to study the extend and diversity of materials are sources of external and internal levels in one of the coastal thaluk, which is radiation exposure in dwellings, besides gamma otherwise known as normal background region. radiation and cosmic radiation. External The gamma spectrometric measurement was radiation exposure is caused by the gamma used for the estimation of natural radioactivity in radiation originating from members of the 40 soil samples collected in a systematic way from uranium and thorium decay chain and from k.