EGU21-3171, updated on 26 Sep 2021 https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3171 EGU General Assembly 2021 © Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Radiocesium distribution in soils of Tenerife Island (Canary Islands, Spain) María López Pérez1, Pedro Ángel Salazar Carballo1,2, María Candelaria Martín Luis3, Francisco Javier Hernández1, Esperanza Liger4, José Carlos Fernández de Aldecoa1, Antonio Catalán Acosta1,2, and Elisa Gordo4 1Servicio General de Apoyo a la Investigación,Universidad de La Laguna, Spain (
[email protected]) 2Departamento de Medicina Física y Farmacología, Universidad de La Laguna,Spain (
[email protected]) 3Departamento Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología, Universidad de La Laguna,Spain (
[email protected]) 4Grupo de Geoquímica y Radioactividad Ambiental, Universidad de Málaga, Spain (
[email protected]) Tenerife is the largest and most populated island of the Canary Islands; with a surface of 2,034 km2 and 917,841 inhabitants (in January 2019), it hosts 43% of the total population of the archipelago. Large amounts of 137Cs, an artificial radionuclide with a half-life of 30.2 years, were released into the environment due to the nuclear weapon tests carried out from the 1950s to the 1970s and by nuclear power plant accidents, such as the Chernobyl in 1986. The most recent 137Cs release into the environment was due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, following the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011. Radionuclides released by this accident were measured in air filters collected in the Canary Islands despite the tremendous distance to the source (López-Pérez et al., 2013).