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Improving in Situ Cosmogenic Chronometers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Douglas H. Clark ,
Paul R. Bierman  and
Patrick Larsen
Douglas H. Clark
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Paul R. Bierman
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405
Patrick Larsen
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405
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Abstract

New radiocarbon ages for Sierra Nevada deglaciation, the first 10 Be measurements from the Laurentide terminal moraine, and calculations based on paleomagnetic field strength have the potential to substantially improve the accuracy of cosmogenic age estimates. Specifically, three new constraints apply to the interpretation of measured abundances of in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al: (1) A suite of minimum-limiting radiocarbon dates indicates that the Sierra Nevada was deglaciated at least several thousand years earlier than assumed when Nishiizumi et al. (1989) first calibrated 10Be and 26 Al production rates based on polished bedrock surfaces in the range, with retreat beginning by 18,000 cal yr B.P. and completed by 13,000 cal yr B.P. (2) Concentrations of 10Be in moraine boulders and glacier-polished bedrock in New Jersey show little variance (10%, 1σ) and can be used to calculate a preliminary 10Be production rate (integrated over the past 21,000-22,000 cal yr B.P. at 41°, 200-300 m altitude) that is about 20% lower than currently accepted. (3) Calculations of the effect of past geomagnetic field-strength variations on production rates suggest that the use of temporally averaged production rates may generate age errors of >20%; however, cosmogenic exposure ages can be corrected for this effect, although the corrections currently are imprecise. Many previously reported late-Pleistocene 10Be and 26Al exposure ages are probably too young and are less accurate and less precise than implied by reported uncertainties. The discrepancy between accepted production rates and those calculated from Laurentide exposures, when considered together with the Sierran deglacial chronology and the model results, suggest that correlations between cosmogenic and other numerical ages, especially for brief events like the Younger Dryas and Heinrich events, will not be robust until temporal variations and the altitude/latitude scaling of production rates are fully understood and quantified at levels comparable to current analytic uncertainties (∼3%).

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , November 1995 , pp. 367 - 377
Copyright
University of Washington

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