Radiometric fingerprinting of sediments on the Dutch, German and Danish coasts

Concentrations of natural radionuclides in the heavy-mineral fraction of coastal sands have been shown, in earlier work, to be distinctly different for two regions along the Dutch coast. Because these two regions have different source areas, it was concluded that concentrations of natural radionuclides in the heavy-mineral fraction of coastal sediments represent a radiometric fingerprint. This fingerprint is considered to be a sensitive tool for identifying sediments of different provenance. To further investigate this assumption, samples were collected along the North Sea and Baltic coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, as an extension of the earlier work. In the present investigation, we find that two additional source areas may be identified using the radiometric fingerprint. The four regions correspond with glacial terranes of Saalian and Weichsellian age, and the present-day watersheds of the Elbe and Rhine river systems