Survey Metadata

Peat and associated materials were sampled over a portion of the NEA-IAEA Test Area in the Athabasca Basin – Wollaston Lake area, northern Saskatchewan.  In June 1980, detailed sampling was carried out over uranium deposits at McClean Lake and McMahon Lake (Midwest deposit).  A total of 917 peat, surface organic materials (humus, Labrador tea and sphagnum moss) and inorganic clastic sediments (alluvium, colluvium, fluvial sand, till) were collected.  In addition, 353 interstitial waters squeezed from the peats were obtained.  For sample sites outside of bogs, either organic litter and /or sphagnum moss directly over boulders and/or glacial drift was collected.  In bogs, a pit was dug to the permafrost table (0.2-0.4 m) below which a continuous core was recovered using a frozen ground coring kit.  The interstitial waters of selected peat cores were squeezed out and filtered (0.45 µm).  The data are published in GSC Open File 854 and a summary of the work can be found in Geological Survey of Canada Paper 82-11.