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Cosmogenic nuclide techniques

Nature Reviews Methods Primers volume 2, Article number: 18 (2022) Cite this article

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Abstract

Cosmogenic nuclide techniques have advanced the geosciences by providing tools for exposure age dating, burial dating, quantification of denudation rates and more. Advances in geochemistry, accelerator mass spectrometry and atom trap trace analyses are ushering in a new cosmogenic nuclide era, by improving the sensitivity of measurements to ultra-trace levels that now allow new applications of these techniques to numerous Earth surface processes. The advances in cosmogenic nuclide techniques have equipped the next generation of geoscientists with invaluable tools for understanding the planet, but addressing pressing needs requires rising to an even greater challenge: imbuing within the cosmogenic community, and the geosciences as a whole, a commitment to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion that matches our dedication to scientific research. In this Primer, we review the state of the art and recent exciting breakthroughs in the use of cosmogenic nuclide techniques, focusing on erosion factories over space and time, and new perspectives on ice sheet stability. We also highlight promising ways forward in enhancing inclusion in the field, as well as obstacles that remain to be overcome.

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Fig. 1: Cosmogenic nuclide production systematics.
Fig. 2: Experimental procedure.
Fig. 3: Instrumental set-up for AMS and ATTA.
Fig. 4: Representative results.
Fig. 5: Applications of cosmogenic nuclides to studying source-to-sink processes and the history of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Fig. 6: Precision and accuracy of cosmogenic nuclide determinations.
Fig. 7: Metadata reported in basin-wide cosmogenic 10Be studies published between 1995 and 2020.
Fig. 8: Timeline of gender parity in cosmogenic nuclide geosciences.

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Acknowledgements

J.M.S. acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (NSF-EAR-1933927) and the Vetlesen Foundation; J.K.W. acknowledges funding from grant NSF-EAR-1651243; A.T.C. and R.-H.F. acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional owners of the land on which they live and work; and Z.-T.L. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41727901). The authors are grateful to Y.-C. Fu for help in suggesting relevant references.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Joerg M. Schaefer, Jane K. Willenbring.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA

    Joerg M. Schaefer & Benjamin Keisling

  2. School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Alexandru T. Codilean & Réka-H. Fülöp

  3. ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Alexandru T. Codilean

  4. Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Jane K. Willenbring

  5. School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Zheng-Tian Lu

  6. NST - The Environment, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Lucas Heights, New South Wales, Australia

    Réka-H. Fülöp

  7. Department of Geology, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais CEP, Brazil

    Pedro Val

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Contributions

Introduction (J.M.S., A.T.C., J.K.W. and B.K.); Experimentation (J.M.S., A.T.C., J.K.W., Z.-T.L., R.-H.F. and B.K.); Results (J.M.S., A.T.C., J.K.W., Z.-T.L., R.-H.F., P.V. and B.K.); Applications (J.M.S., A.T.C., J.K.W., Z.-T. L., R.-H.F., P.V. and B.K.); Reproducibility and data deposition (J.M.S., A.T.C., J.K.W., P.V. and B.K.); Limitations and optimizations (J.M.S., A.T.C., J.K.W., Z.-T.L., R.-H.F. and B.K.); Outlook (J.M.S., A.T.C., J.K.W., Z.-T.L., R.-H.F., P.V. and B.K.); Overview of Primer (J.M.S. and J.K.W.).

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Correspondence to Joerg M. Schaefer.

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Nature Reviews Methods Primers thanks Regis Braucher, Derek Fabel, Paula Hilger and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Dedicated to Didier Bourlès (1955–2021).

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Related links

AGI Currents 2020: https://www.americangeosciences.org/sites/default/files/DB_2020-023-DiversityInTheGeosciences.pdf

ATTA method: http://atta.ustc.edu.cn/en-us/events/attaprimer.html

ExpAge: http://expage.github.io/

Froth flotation: https://www.physics.purdue.edu/primelab/MSL/froth_floatation.html

ICE-D: http://ice-d.org/

ICE-D production rate calibration data: http://calibration.ice-d.org/discussion/recent

IPCC SR15: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/

OCTOPUS: https://octopusdata.org/

Glossary

Rates of production

The rates at which specific nuclides are produced from a specific element or in a mineral. Production rates for all terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides vary spatially and appear to have varied temporally; they are often reported as normalized to sea level and high latitude.

Cosmogenic accumulation clock

Cosmic ray neutrons and muons produce terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides in near-surface rocks as a function of time.

Cosmogenic decay clock

Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides in buried rocks decay according to their half-lives or remain constant if the cosmogenic nuclides are stable.

Denudation

The process of erosion, leaching and stripping due to the removal of material from higher to lower areas. The sum of weathering and erosion.

Surface exposure dating

Sampling a surface after an exposure time t and measuring the cosmogenic nuclides on the surface, divided by the production rate of this nuclide at this location and during this exposure time.

Burial dating

Buried samples measured after a burial time, where the terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide ratios reflect the period of burial and constrain the duration.

Basal zone

The lowermost tens of metres of ice, the upper metres of sub-ice bedrock and the potential sediment layer in between.

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Schaefer, J.M., Codilean, A.T., Willenbring, J.K. et al. Cosmogenic nuclide techniques. Nat Rev Methods Primers 2, 18 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00096-9

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