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Geology; April 2003; v. 31; no. 4; p. 299-302; DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(2003)031<0299:UOCRAA>2.0.CO;2
© 2003 Geological Society of America
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Use of cosmogenic radionuclides as a sediment tracer in the Santa Cruz littoral cell, California, United States

L.A. Perg*,1, R.S. Anderson*,1 and R.C. Finkel*,2

1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
2 Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry and Geosciences and Environmental Technology, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA

We demonstrate that cosmogenic radionuclides can be employed to trace sediment when the sources have sufficiently distinct concentrations, and develop a theoretical mixing model for a rocky coastline littoral system. We combine the resulting mixing model with existing cosmogenic radionuclide methods that quantify river inputs and terrace ages to determine the major components of the long-term littoral sediment budget of the Santa Cruz, California, coastline. Sediment derived from coastal basins eroding at 0.2 mm/yr has a much lower concentration than sediment derived from 60–84 ka terrace sands atop backwearing seacliffs. The complex pattern of cosmogenic radionuclide concentrations in littoral sands along >100 km of coastline can be explained by mixing sediment derived from seacliffs backwearing at 10 cm/yr with that delivered by rivers having widely different amounts of sediment discharge.

Key Words: littoral cell • sediment budget • cosmogenic elements • Santa Cruz County, California




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