10Be chronometry of bedrock-to-soil conversion rates

Abstract

We report concentrations of cosmogenic 10Be ( t 1/2 = 1.5 × 10 6 yrs) in soil excavated from a soil-mantled hillslope in Black Diamond Mines Regional Park, Contra Costa County, California. The most striking features of the data are: (1) the similarity in the downward decreasing trends of 10Be concentrations in two soil profiles collected 75 m apart, (2) the coincidence in each soil profile of the soil/bedrock interface (as defined by visual inspection of soil pits) and the level at which 10Be concentrations attain very low values ( ∼4 × 10 6 atoms/g), and (3) the extremely low 10Be concentrations in the underlying regolith (0.5 × 10 6 atoms/gram). The inventory of 10Be in these soils is low, equivalent to about 6000 yrs of 10Be accumulation in a soil initially containing no 10Be. On the basis of these measurements, and with the aid of simple models of soil ( 10Be) motions on the hillslope, we conclude that 10Be loss from the surface is dominated by its removal in soil by creep. We calculate local rates of bedrock-to-soil conversion of between 0.15 and 0.27 km/10 6 yrs. Comparing these with uplift rates determined for coastal regions of California indicates that soil creep alone is capable of removing soil from the local geomorphic system at a rate equivalent to the rate of uplift of much of the coast.