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Stone 2000
Stone, J.O. (2000). Air pressure and cosmogenic isotope production. Journal of Geophysical Research 105: doi: 10.1029/2000JB900181. issn: 0148-0227.

The cosmic ray flux increases at higher altitude as air pressure and the shielding effect of the atmosphere decrease. Altitude-dependent scaling factors are required to compensate for this effect in calculating cosmic ray exposure ages. Scaling factors in current use assume a uniform relationship between altitude and atmospheric pressure over the Earth's surface. This masks regional differences in mean annual pressure and spatial variation in cosmogenic isotope production rates. Outside Antarctica, air pressures over land depart from the standard atmosphere by ¿4.4 hPa (1&sgr;) near sea level, corresponding to offsets of ¿3--4% in isotope production rates. Greater offsets occur in regions of persistent high and low pressure such as Siberia and Iceland, where conventional scaling factors predict production rates in error by ¿10%. The largest deviations occur over Antarctica where ground level pressures are 20--40 hPa lower than the standard atmosphere at all altitudes. Isotope production rates in Antarctica are therefore 25--30% higher than values calculated by scaling Northern Hemisphere production rates with conventional scaling factors. Exposure ages of old Antarctic surfaces, especially those based on cosmogenic radionuclides at levels close to saturation, may be millions of years younger than published estimates. ¿ 2000 American Geophysical Union

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Geochemistry, Geochronology, Geochemistry, Instruments and techniques, Information Related to Geographic Region, Antarctica
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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