Radon, helium and uranium survey in some thermal springs located in NW Himalayas, India: mobilization by tectonic features or by geochemical barriers?

Abstract

Radon, helium and uranium measurements have been carried out in hot water springs in the Parbati and Beas valleys of Himachal Himalaya. Most of these hot springs are known as famous pilgrimage centers. The activity of dissolved radon in the liquid phase is found to vary widely, by an order of magnitude, between 10 and 750 Bq L⁻¹, whereas, the dissolved helium content in these thermal springs varies between 10 and 100 ppm. The uranium contents are low and vary from <0.01 to 5 μg L⁻¹. The measured values of radon, helium and uranium are possibly controlled by structural geology, namely the presence of pervious fault systems, and by the lithology of the leached host rocks. Redox-potential geochemical barriers cause the mobilization of uranile ions in solution (UO²⁺); the most plausible hypothesis is when the conditions are oxidising, confirming the importance of physico-chemical conditions up to the supergenic environment, to control the fluid geochemistry of the U–He–²²²Rn system. Some evidence is available from both geothermometric considerations and geochemical data which will be reported elsewhere, whereas the present study is focused on U decay series–noble gas geochemistry. The first analysis of collected ³He/⁴He data is consistent with a crustal signature at the studied thermal springs.