Cosmogenic nuclides:

revolutionizing
geomorphology

Santiago Noriega Londoño

Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Grupo de Estudios Tectónicos
Junio/2017
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/magnetosphere2.html

Cosmic rays
Cosmogenic nuclides

Darwill 2013
 Cosmogenic nuclides

When Victor Hess took off on his

balloon flight from Vienna in
1912, he probably did not imagine
that his discovery of cosmic rays
at high altitudes would lead to the
1936 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Cosmogenic nuclides

Blankenburg and Wilengbring 2014

Cosmogenic nuclides

Blankenburg and Wilengbring 2014

Cosmogenic nuclides

Blankenburg and Wilengbring 2014

Cosmogenic nuclides

Turowski and Cook, 2017

 Cosmogenic nuclides
The cosmogenic nuclide concentration in a rock is proportional to the length of time that
it has been exposed on the earth’s surface, i.e. cosmogenic bombardment

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1755/downloads/PP1755_508.pdf

http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glacial-geology/dating-glacial-sediments-2/cosmogenic_nuclide_datin/
 Under certain assumptions the 10Be/9Be ratio
taken up or adsorbed by weathering products
Cosmogenic nuclides (reac) or dissolved in river water (diss) is equal
Erosion/exhumation/transport/deposition to the atmospheric flux of meteoric 10Be
(F10Bemet) divided by the denudation rate D

http://www.onafarawayday.com/Radiogenic/Ch14/Ch14-6.htm

After Zreda et al. (1994).

10
Be/9Be 

http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/section/earth-surface-geochemistry/projects/the-10be9be-ratios-as-tracer-of-earth-surface-processes/
 Cosmogenic nuclides

 Fault slip
displacement rate
 Soil
production/erosion
rate

 Glaciar and morraine

displacement rate

 Basin-averaged
sediment transport
rate

Blankenburg and Wilengbring 2014

Cosmogenic nuclides

Blankenburg and Wilengbring 2014

 10
Be/9Be 
Cosmogenic nuclides

https://e-docs.geo-leo.de/bitstream/handle/11858/00-1735-0000-0001-B9ED-5/vol57_no1-2_a07.pdf?sequence=1
Cosmogenic nuclides
t0: produccion por exhumacion ths: transporte por laderas
tdr: transporte por drenajes

ths: depositacion

tb: enterramiento
10
Be/9Be decrece

http://azgeology.azgs.az.gov/article/feature-article/2012/12/post-tectonic-landscape-evolution-southeastern-arizona-when-did/page/0/1
 Cosmogenic nuclides Some previous experiences

Blanckenburg 2004
 Cosmogenic nuclides Some applications in North Andes

 Basin-averaged
sediment transport
rate
Assumptions:
(1) erosion in the catchment is uniform
over time and (2) the catchment is in
isotopic steady state (i.e., cosmogenic
nuclide production in the catchment
equals the cosmogenic nuclide export via
total erosion and radioactive decay)
Blankenburg and Wilengbring 2014
 Cosmogenic nuclides Some applications in North Andes

 Soil production/erosion rate

In situ-produced 10Be concentrations as a function

of depth along the Gentio do Ouro massive quartz
vein (Brazil laterite). The mean erosion rate,
calculated using a 5 at/g/yr 10Be production rate, is
estimated at 0.0025 km/My, the muon contribution
being set at 1.5%.
Blankenburg and Wilengbring 2014 Braucher et al 1998
Cosmogenic nuclides Some applications in North Andes
Cosmogenic nuclides Some applications in North Andes

Some logistics:
Price by sample = ?
Time by sample = ?
Lab’s Schedule = ?
2 samples inside AP:
 Active sediments of Riogrande
watershed
 Ancient sediments of
Riogrande-San Andres transition
2/4 samples in AP-CRC transition
(sediments/soils):
 Ovejas/San Jeronimo
(transient fluvial system)

Total samples = 4/6

(granitoids and sediments)
Cosmogenic nuclides Some applications in North Andes
Cosmogenic nuclides Some applications in North Andes

Sediment samples in CRC, Sediment samples in AP,

Sopetran Site (~ 15 km2) Ovejas Site (~10 km2)
(Volume of aluvial fans) (~18-40 ky Garcia/Hermelin in Stoneline)
High erosion rates expected! Low erosion rates expected!
 Do you want more? 137 Cs for short-term erosion in soils
Cesium-137: its physiological and chemical properties are similar to those of the potassium. Is an artificial
radionuclide produced by the uranium-235 and the plutonium-239 fission process, with a 30.17 years lifetime
that declines by negative beta emission (proton) to the meta-stable Barium-137.

Walling and Quine, 1992

 Do you want more?
USDA soil classification and calibration of pedogenetic processes in tropics

https://www.slideshare.net/CarlosMndez3/evolucion-conceptual-de-modelos-pedogeneticos Tsai et al 2016

 Resume:

 Terrestial Cosmogenic Nuclides (TCN) revolutionizing

modern geomorphology

 TCN provide erosion rates at middle-term timescales

(103-106 years)

 Production of cosmogenic ages in North Andes

 And more…
 Questions?
Suggestions?
Recomendations?