Evaluación de concentraciones de radón en suelo del sector Cajabamba-comunidad Huacona, provincia de Chimborazo.

Abstract

Currently, no scientific information is available, and there are no records of radon concentrations in soil in the province of Chimborazo and the country. Knowing these details, this project was developed to obtain information that helps to develop a geographical map that indicates the different concentrations of radon in soil. This research aimed to evaluate the concentrations of radon in the soil of the Cajabamba sector, Huacona community, Chimborazo province. The study was carried out from November 2022 to April 2023. The methodology had a non-experimental quantitative approach with a depth of correlational study. A discrete sampling was carried out based on a grid of equidistant points in the cross-sectional area of the study sector. A stratified random sample was used to compare the radon measurements and physicochemical parameters of each one of the subsectors, obtaining the measurement of the radon concentration and the respective samples for analysis in the laboratory. The study population was the communities of Huacona and Cicalpa; the methods of gravimetry of the cylinder, cylinder of known volume and WEEKS measurement were applied. The results were determined by obtaining that the concentration of radon with soil moisture exhibits a significant correlation of 0.74 with a p-value of 0.02, which means that there is a directly proportional relationship between the concentration of radon with pH and electrical conductivity, a negative correlation of -0.61 with p-value 0.03 was identified, that is an inversely proportional relationship, indicating that the higher the pH and electrical conductivity, the lower the radon concentration. Through the heat maps, we relate to the meteorological variables, between temperature and relative humidity %, it was possible to geographically identify those parts in which maximum and minimum values are recorded.