Radiation Protection Dosimetry 69:51-60 (1997)
© 1997 Oxford University Press
Do the Earth Tides have an Influence on Short-Term Variations in Radon Concentration?
The short term (diurnal) indoor radon variations are often explained as a result of temperature and air pressure changes inside a dwelling (the so-called stack effect). The observations of indoor and soil gas radon variations related to the temperature and pressure variations in a test dwelling at Lipová, Northern Bohemia, have not proved the expected correlation between the radon and climatic parameters. The stack effect was clearly observed at the beginning of the four week cycles, when the indoor temperature growth was obvious. However, the indoor radon variations were of the same range or higher than at the beginning of the cycles during the whole week cycles, even when the temperature changes were of the 1-3oC range. A theory is therefore presented, supported by the known fluctuations of the groundwater level caused by the Earth tides, and the widely observed free air radon variations. According to this theory, the Earth tides lead to the compression of the aquifers and synchronous rise of the groundwater level, which displaces the soil gas with radon into the atmosphere or dwellings. The Earth tide components were calculated for the studied loyalty and time intervals. The very good phase fit of the amplitudes of gravity variations, vertical and volume strain and vertical displacement with the indoor radon variations was found. This agreement leads to the conclusion that the Earth tides can be considered as one of the causes of the indoor radon variations. This conclusion is also supported by the observations of the radon variations in the underground unventilated spaces under constant temperature and air pressure conditions.