sup 10 Be study of rapid erosion in Taiwan

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1988 · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(88)90037-3· OSTI ID:7165484

You, Chenfeng; Chen, Juchin ^[1]; Lee, Typhoon; Shen, Jason Jiunsan ^[2]; Brown, L ^[3]

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1. Institute of Earth Sciences, Taipei (Taiwan) National Taiwan Univ., Taipei (Taiwan)
2. Institute of Earth Sciences, Taipei (Taiwan)
3. Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC (USA)

Cosmogenic {sup 10}Be was measured using accelerator mass spectrometry in soils and sediments to study the erosion of Taiwan, which has the highest denudation rate in the world. The river sediments in Taiwan have very low {sup 10}Be concentrations, around 5 million atoms per gram, about 1/45 the world wide average. This is the direct consequence of its high sediment yield of ore than 1,000 mg/cm{sup 2}/yr, 70 times the world average. Combining these values the authors found that, for Taiwan as a whole, the {sup 10}Be output to the sea only slightly exceeds the input from the rain, a situation typical of many areas around the world. Therefore, even in this example of extremely rapid erosion, {sup 10}Be seems to remain a useful indicator for erosion status. The total {sup 10}Be inventory found in a soil profile from a geologically stable area is at least 18% of the maximum possible inventory. The minimum age thus estimated for the soil is 0.11 Ma, in reasonable agreement with estimates from other means. The maximum erosion rate for this area thus estimated is at most 0.14 mg/cm{sup 2}/yr, four orders of magnitude slower than the average value observed for Taiwan. They also demonstrate that the shelf sediments around Taiwan have received the admixing of a {sup 10}be rich component from the ocean and would give a poor estimate for material eroded from Taiwan.

• OSTI ID: 7165484
• Journal Information: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; (USA), Vol. 52:11; ISSN 0016-7037
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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