Quantifying Sediment Generation in Humid Tropical Regions Using Cosmogenic Nuclides - A Proof of Method

摘要

Our overall goal was to constrain better the background or natural rate at which soil and rock surfaces are eroding and sediment is transported. We have collected 37 samples from the tropical humid Rio Chagres watershed in Panama as a methodological test. Since the headwaters of the Rio Chagres watershed are remote and relatively undisturbed by humans it is an ideal tropical location to test the cosmogenic method. This proof of method' study in tropical environments has broadened the geographic scope over which cosmogenic nuclides can be used to understand societal and environmentally relevant geologic processes including erosion and sediment transport.