Study of the properties of soil in Kirkuk, IRAQ

The properties of soil in Kirkuk city (IRAQ) are studied using gamma and neutron radiation. Ten locations are selected for the process of making field measurements on soils at 40-50 cm depth levels then the samples were collected to be studied in the laboratory also. In the field, we measured the density and moisture contents of soils. The laboratory measurement has been performed to obtain mass attenuation coefficients, using gamma spectrometer contains shielded NaI (Tl) detector at the energies of 59.5, 356.5, 662, 1173 and 1332 keV. The obtained results were presented and discussed. The study has practical importance to know the nature of the soil in the oil and agricultural city Kirkuk. Copyright (C) 2016, The Egyptian Society of Radiation Sciences and Applications. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).