Overview
- Authors:
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Jürg Beer
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Eawag, Dübendorf, Switzerland
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Ken McCracken
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High Range NSW, Australia
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Rudolf Steiger
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International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland
- Demonstrates strength and limitations of radionuclides as analytic tools
- Written for a multi-disciplinary research readership
- Background knowledge carefully explained in boxes
- Contains chapter and section summaries, detailed derivations of results and many detailed illustrations
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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About this book
Cosmogenic radionuclides are radioactive isotopes which are produced by natural processes and distributed within the Earth system. With a holistic view of the environment the authors show in this book how cosmogenic radionuclides can be used to trace and to reconstruct the history of a large variety of processes. They discuss the way in which cosmogenic radionuclides can assist in the quantification of complex processes in the present-day environment. The book aims to demonstrate to the reader the strength of analytic tools based on cosmogenic radionuclides, their contribution to almost any field of modern science, and how these tools may assist in the solution of many present and future problems that we face here on Earth.
The book provides a comprehensive discussion of the basic principles behind the applications of cosmogenic (and other) radionuclides as environmental tracers and dating tools. The second section of the book discusses in some detail the production of radionuclides by cosmic radiation, their transport and distribution in the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, their storage in natural archives, and how they are measured. The third section of the book presents a number of examples selected to illustrate typical tracer and dating applications in a number of different spheres (atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, biosphere, solar physics and astronomy). At the same time the authors have outlined the limitations of the use of cosmogenic radionuclides.
Written on a level understandable by graduate students without specialist skills in physics or mathematics, the book addresses a wide audience, ranging from archaeology, biophysics, and geophysics, to atmospheric physics, hydrology, astrophysics and space science.
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Article
Open access
10 November 2022
Table of contents (23 chapters)
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Introduction
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 3-5
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 7-9
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 11-14
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Cosmic Radiation
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 17-18
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 19-78
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 79-98
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 99-109
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 111-131
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Cosmogenic Radionuclides
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Front Matter
Pages 133-133
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 135-137
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 139-177
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 179-189
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 191-201
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 203-239
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 241-277
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- Jürg Beer, Ken McCracken, Rudolf von Steiger
Pages 279-291
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Applications
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Front Matter
Pages 293-293
Authors and Affiliations
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Eawag, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Jürg Beer
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High Range NSW, Australia
Ken McCracken
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International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland
Rudolf Steiger
About the authors
Jürg Beer is a pioneer in cosmogenic radionuclides measured in polar ice cores. Rudolf von Steiger is director of the International Space science Institute in Bern. His research focusses on the Solar Wind. Ken McCracken is a pioneer in cosmic rays research and space research from early satellites.