ABSTRACT

Proper comprehension of significant environments inducing sediment migration can be obtained with sand tracers. Several methods and materials have been experimented with since 1938 to mark clastic particles for their use as tracers in sand transport studies. Recent advances in chemical technology enable large scale, economic preparation of luminescent tracer sand through the application of synthetic organic dyes and coating polymers. The most useful fluorescent dyes belong in the class xanthenes. A wide variety of adhesive resins may be utilized, especially from among amino and acrylic resins. An evaluation of materials used and techniques applied indicate a variety of tracers is obtainable with respect to differentiation by color and effective duration in the environment. Fluorescent tracers show advantages over radioactive material and have been used in large scale quantitative studies of sediment transport in the United States, the U.S.S.R., and Great Britain.