Studying groundwater quality is crucial for ensuring its safety because it is widely used for drinking and for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes. Owing to the lack of surface water in the Tabuk area of Saudi Arabia, here groundwater wells are one of the primary sources of water for drinking, agriculture, and industry. Groundwater quality is determined by the aquifer characteristics of the regional geology, and it is extensively influenced by both natural and anthropogenic activities. To understand the geochemical evolution and assess the suitability of groundwater for irrigation, major ion geochemistry was utilized to characterize the chemical composition of groundwater in the Tabuk area, which is considered a semiarid plateau region. Depending on its mineral composition, irrigation water’s quality reflects how it affects plants and soil. In total, 80 groundwater samples have been collected and analyzed in laboratory for major cations and anions. Temperature, alkalinity (ALK), pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), electric conductivity (EC), total hardness (TH), oxidation reduction potential (ORP), and cation and anion concentrations were measured. Water chemistry classification was carried out by using a Piper diagram and a Gibbs diagram. In the current study, statistical methods, combined with geochemical modeling and conventional plots, have been used to investigate groundwater and related geochemical processes in the Tabuk area of Saudi Arabia. Applications and calculations of hydrogeochemical parameters, specifically SAR, RSC, PI, CR, MH, Na%, KR, and HI, showed that 92.5% of the collected groundwater well samples are suitable for drinking and irrigation purposes after treatment processes.

Three methods were employed for the determination of uranium in granitic ore rock samples. Gamma spectrometry is a non-destructive technique while alpha spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) are destructive methods needing application of radiochemical separation before uranium measurement. In gamma spectrometry, the activity concentration of uranium is measured via its daughter (^234mPa) in the decay series, while in alpha spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), the activity concentration of uranium is measured directly. The activity concentrations of uranium in the samples by gamma spectrometry were between 36.7 ± 0.5 and 239 ± 2.3 Bq g⁻¹. The activity concentrations of uranium by alpha spectrometry and ICP-MS were from 28.7 ± 1 to 145 ± 1 Bq g⁻¹ and 34.3 ± 1.4 to 155.9 ± 1.6 Bq g⁻¹, respectively. The ICP-MS and alpha spectrometry methods provided reliable results. The uranium concentrations obtained by gamma spectrometry were, however, systematically too high.

The present study is an application of a radiochemical procedure for the determination of ²³⁸U, ²³⁵U and ²³⁴U as well as uranium isotopic ratios in El Sela ore grade samples that located at the Southeastern Desert of Egypt. This procedure is consisting of several steps include sample preparation, chemical separation and source preparation followed by counting using alpha-particle spectrometry technique. Radiochemical determination of various uranium isotopes contents indicated that El Sela uranium deposits are considered as a recent deposit where there was a large difference between radiochemically and radiometrically determined uranium. The measured ²³⁴U/²³⁸U activity ratios for most samples were approximately unity, indicating that secular radioactive equilibrium was established between ²³⁸U and ²³⁴U in the El Sela mineralised rocks. On the other hand, ²³⁸U and ²³⁴U might be equally leached due to the effect of rock-water interactions during the pluvial time by the action of surficial or underground water. The ²³⁸U/²³⁵U activity ratios of the studied mineralised granites were significantly shifted from the natural ratio 21.7, indicating that the redox conditions and alteration processes played an important role in the fractionation of ²³⁸U from ²³⁵U. The values of ²³⁴U/²³⁵U ratios in the studied granites varied between 23.08 and 34.70 in different samples, suggesting ²³⁵U migration out due to the prevailing conditions.

Egypt is mainly covered by ophiolitic rocks, muscovite, and two mica granites, in addition to different types of acidic and basic dikes. Our field observations indicated that El Sela granites were subjected to alteration types such as silicification, kaolinization, and hematitization, which is associated with uranium mineralization. Petrographic investigations clarified that these rocks were affected by saussiritization, muscovitization, and silicifications as the main alteration types associated with uranium mineralization (uranophane and autunite). We carried out chemical analyses of our samples for major oxides and trace and rare earth elements using ICP-OES and ICP-MS. The studied altered granites had high silica, titanium, and phosphorous as major components, with enhanced amounts of trace elements such as Nb, Ta, Zn, Mo, Pb, and Re, in addition to REE, especially light ones. The average REE content was higher than that of worldwide granites with LREE enrichment. One sample had a strong M-type tetrad effect in the fourth type; other samples had weak W-type in the third type, indicating the effect of hydrothermal alteration processes in the altered granites. This was confirmed by calculating the ratios of most isovalents that deviated from the chondritic ratio in many values. Variation diagrams of U and some trace elements illustrated that U had a weak positive correlation with Y and a strong positive correlation with gold, while it had weak to moderate negative correlation with Hf and Zr/U. In addition, uranium had a weakly defined correlation with the other trace elements, indicating a weak to moderate effect of magmatic processes, while the post-magmatic processes surficial or underground water greatly influenced the redistribution of uranium and other elements.

Abu Garadi area is mainly represented by metasediments, alkali feldspar granites and stream sediments. The granitic mass described different degrees of hydrothermal alterations like albitization, greisenisation, hematitisation, silicification and koalinitisation which are mostly restricted to the faults. Uranium mineralisation in these granitic rocks is mainly controlled by the sheared granite parts. Various radionuclides from uranium decay series such as (²³⁸U, ²³⁴U, ²³⁵U, ²³⁰Th, ²²⁶Ra) and ⁴⁰K in the altered granite of Abu Garadi area that located in central Eastern Desert, Egypt are used to localise uranium accumulation sites in this pluton. Uranium and Thorium contents indicate that these altered granites have high thorium and high uranium granites. Th/U ratios vary between 0.81 and 5.79 with an average of 2.64, which suggests the presence of these samples in the transitional oxidation-reduction zone as evidenced by Th/U ratios>2 and reduction zone as suggested by Th/U ratios<2, respectively. ²³⁸U/²³⁵U, ²³⁴U/²³⁵U, ²³⁴U/²³⁸U, ²³⁰Th/²³⁸U, and ²²⁶Ra/²³⁰Th activity ratios confirm that most samples of Abu Garadi altered granite lie in the U-accumulations zone. All investigated samples clarify that uranium-series disequilibrium is a technique to trace the recent migration of uranium in these altered granites by the characterisation of the oxidation-reduction boundary.

People use granite in residential buildings on a large scale all around the world. Knowing granite’s radiological characteristics allows for the safe use of its properties to be maintained over time. Our findings are significant for two reasons: first, they may increase public awareness of the naturally radioactive properties of the materials under investigation, and second, they are necessary to establish standards, regulations, and management for the building materials used in Saudi Arabia. In this study, twenty-four granitic rock samples were collected from the Hai’l area in Saudi Arabia, and these samples are used as building material. Gamma spectrometry was used to measure the amounts of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, ²²⁶Ra, and ⁴⁰K in the collected granitic rock samples. The obtained data was also used to calculate some environmental hazard parameters, such as the absorbed gamma dose rate (AGDR), annual effective dose rate (AEDR), radium equivalent (Ra_eq), external and internal hazard indexes (H_ex and H_in), gamma index (I_γ), alpha index (I_α), and excess lifetime cancer index (ELCR). We concluded that the collected granitic samples are harmful and need more attenuation if used as building materials.