Et. Brown et al., DENUDATION RATES DETERMINED FROM THE ACCUMULATION OF IN SITU-PRODUCEDBE-10 IN THE LUQUILLO EXPERIMENTAL FOREST, PUERTO-RICO, Earth and planetary science letters, 129(1-4), 1995, pp. 193-202
We present a simple method for estimation of long-term mean denudation
rates using in situ-produced cosmogenic Be-10 in fluvial sediments. P
rocedures are discussed to account for the effects of soil bioturbatio
n, mass wasting and attenuation of cosmic rays by biomass and by local
topography. Our analyses of Be-10 in quartz from bedrock outcrops, so
ils, mass-wasting sites and riverine sediment from the Icacos River ba
sin in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico, are used to char
acterize denudation for major landform elements in that basin. The Be-
10 concentration of a discharge-weighted average of size classes of ri
ver sediment corresponds to a long-term average denudation of approxim
ate to 43 m Ma(-1), consistent with mass balance results.