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Estimation of potassium in soils by determination of 40 K content
Author(s) -
Rodriguez J.,
Mattingly G. E. G.
Publication year - 1960
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740111207
Subject(s) - potassium , soil water , chemistry , quartz , mineralogy , analytical chemistry (journal) , geiger counter , radiochemistry , environmental chemistry , soil science , environmental science , geology , physics , optics , paleontology , organic chemistry
The potassium contents of 38 soils from Great Britain and Spain were estimated by determining their count rates in a cylindrical Geiger‐Müller tube. The count rate was converted to % K from a calibration curve obtained with mixtures of powdered quartz and minerals of known potassium content and density. The mean amount of potassium in 26 soils from Central, Eastern and Southern England was 0.19% higher by counting than by chemical analysis, because they contained other radioactive elements. The radioactivity in these soils, other than that from potassium, was equivalent to approximately U 2.5 p.p.m. and Th 18 p.p.m. Results by chemical analysis and by counting differed more with 12 soils from Scotland, Wales and Spain than with soils from England. The standard error of the mean of duplicate estimations of the potassium content of soils was about ±0.075% K for the radiochemical method and ±0.023 to ±0.026% K for two chemical methods.