Uranium, radium, and selected metallic-element analyses of spring water and travertine samples from the Grand Canyon, Arizona

Abstract

Samples for this report were collected from springs and travertine deposits along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Sampling was done in April and May of 1976. Data obtained from these samples will be used by R. A. Cadigan and J. K. Felmlee as part of a project designed to determine the value of subsurface waters in prospecting for uranium deposits. Sample sites were preselected at approximately equal intervals, but river conditions and accessibility forced some modification of the sampling plan at each spring visited, a 2-liter untreated water sample was collected to be analyzed for uranium and radium. At two of the sample locations, an additional 4-liter water sample was collected, filtered, acidified, and later analyzed for the 24 additional elements listed in table-2. A more detailed description of the sampling technique is presented in Brown and others, 1970. All samples were placed in full, tightly capped plastic containers. Temperature and conductivity were measured in the field. Measurements of the pH of the non-acidified samples were made in the laboratory a few weeks after the samples were collected. An effort was made to collect the freshest possible travertine samples, but the freshness of the samples varied, as noted in the descriptions of the sample sites. Analyses were performed by laboratories of the U.S. Geological Survey. Radium values were determined by radiochemical methods; uranium, by extraction fluorometry; eU (equivalent uranium), by beta-gamma count; and other elements, by semiquantitative emission spectrography. Table 1 is a description of the sample sites. The analytical results for spring water are presented in table 2. Table 3 gives the analyses of the travertine samples.