The use of in-situ produced cosmogenic radionuclides in glaciology and glacial geomorphology

Abstract

AbstractThe usefulness of in-situ produced cosmogenic radionuclides in constraining glacial chronologies through exposure-age dating has been demonstrated in numerous studies. However, an understanding of cosmogenic radionuclide techniques and their uncertainties opens up a wide range of other potential applications in glaciology and glacial geomorphology. Recently developed applications include: estimation of spatial and temporal variations in the depth of glacial erosion from cosmogenic radionuclide inheritance, which provides important constraints on process-based erosion models; and burial dating, which can provide chronological control for glacial advances and the onset of till deposition. An interesting new application, currently at the level of theoretical model development, concerns the unraveling of complex exposure and burial histories. Overall, in-situ produced cosmogenic radionuclide techniques provide a means with which to constrain a wide range of ice-sheet and glacial models over time-scales of a thousand to a few million years.