SPECT images of a flow tracer in a sediment column. The left image shows the beginning of the experiment. The right image shows changes six weeks after the start of a test remediation strategy. Early on, the flow was rapid, so most of the tracer is at the flow exit at the top of the column. Later, remediation led to regions near the flow inlet (bottom of the column) where water is retained.
The same medical imaging technology that doctors use to noninvasively image the heart and brain is now giving scientists a close-up view of the subsurface world. Berkeley Lab scientists are developing a way to use Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, or SPECT, to map 3-D changes in sediment samples without disturbing them. Their work could help improve the clean up of soil contaminants such as heavy metals. It could also help researchers learn how to best store carbon underground, where it can't contribute to climate change. The latest results of this research, led by Bill Moses of Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division and Peter Nico of the Earth Sciences Division, were reported Dec. 6 at the 2012 meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. In the medical use of SPECT, a patient is given a radioactive drug that targets something doctors want to image, such as a tumor or metabolic activity.
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