Welcome to the Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory Website
CfG-CNL is a SRIF2-funded, pupose built laboratory at the Scottish
Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), East Kilbride. for extracting
in-situ produced terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides from rocks and sediment for analysis
by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
In-situ produced terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides
| The Earth is continually being bombarded
by high-energy cosmic rays that originate predominantly from super nova explosions
within our galaxy. Interactions between these high energy cosmic rays and the
Earth's atmosphere creates secondary and tertiary cosmic rays, including neutrons
and muons. |
| When reaching the Earth's surface
these high energy particles can penetrate meters into rock and sediment.
Nuclear interactions between neutrons and muons and minerals
such as quartz, calcite, K-feldspar, and olivine, produce long-lived radionuclides
such as Be-10, Al-26 and Cl-36.
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| The production rates of these "in-situ produced
terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides" are almost unimaginably small - a few atoms
per gram of rock per year, however using accelerator
mass spectrometry (AMS) we can detect and count cosmogenic nuclides down to
levels of a few thousand atoms per gram (parts per million of parts per billion!).
The build-up of cosmogenic nuclides through time provides us
with a way to measure exposure ages for rock surfaces such as fault scarps, lava
flows and glacial pavements.Where surfaces are gradually evolving, cosmogenic
nuclide measurements allow us to calculate erosion or soil accumulation rates.Where
previously exposed rock or sediment is re-buried the relative decay between different
cosmogenic nuclides can be used to date the burial time. |
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