title: Classification of soil samples according to their geographic origin using gamma-ray spectrometry and principal component analysis.
abstract: A principal component analysis (PCA) was used for classification of soil samples from different locations in Serbia and Montenegro. Based on activities of radionuclides ((226)Ra, (238)U, (235)U, (40)K, (134)Cs, (137)Cs, (232)Th and (7)Be) detected by gamma-ray spectrometry, the classification of soils according to their geographical origin was performed. Application of PCA to our experimental data resulted in satisfactory classification rate (86.0% correctly classified samples). The obtained results indicate that gamma-ray spectrometry in conjunction with PCA is a viable tool for soil classification.
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Application of Nuclear Energy, INEP, Radioecology, Banatska 31b, 11080 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. sdragovic@inep.co.yu
authors.forename: Snezana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dragović
authors.forename: Antonije
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Onjia
mesh_terms: D005843:Geography; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis*; D013051:Spectrometry, Gamma; D015022:Yugoslavia
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D012987:Soil