2009 Portland GSA Annual Meeting (18-21 October 2009)

Paper No. 15
Presentation Time: 9:00 AM-6:00 PM

A REEVALUATION OF IN SITU COSMOGENIC HE-3 PRODUCTION RATES


GOEHRING, Brent M., Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, KURZ, Mark, Clark Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, BALCO, Greg, Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, SCHAEFER, Joerg M., Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, LICCIARDI, Joseph, Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH and LIFTON, Nathaniel A., Depts. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, and Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, nlifton@purdue.edu

3He is among the most commonly measured terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides, yet robust interpretation of terrestrial 3He concentrations requires a more accurate understanding of its sea level high latitude (SLHL) production. We present new measurements of the terrestrial cosmogenic 3He production rate in olivine from a well-dated lava flow at Tabernacle Hill, Utah, USA. The new 3He measurements (n=8) show excellent internal consistency and yield a SLHL production rate of 123±4 at g-1 yr-1 following the Lal (1991)/Stone (2000) scaling model [Lal, D., 1991. Cosmic ray labeling of erosion surfaces: in situ nuclide production rates and erosion models. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 104, 424-439.; Stone, J.O., 2000. Air pressure and cosmogenic isotope production. Journal of Geophysical Research, 105, 23753-23759.]. We then combine our new measurements from Tabernacle Hill with a compilation of published production rate determinations to characterize the mean global SLHL production rates (e.g. 120±10 at g-1 yr-1 with Lal (1991)/Stone (2000)). The results show that the internal consistency of the global 3He production rate dataset is as high or higher than for the other commonly used cosmogenic nuclides. Additionally, 3He production rates in olivine and pyroxene are within experimental error, which constrains the compositional dependence of helium production. The new production rates are implemented in an age and erosion rate calculator forming part of the CRONUS-Earth effort to develop an easily accessible and internally consistent platform for cosmogenic nuclide data interpretation. The calculator is made available online at http://www.cronuscalculators.nmt.edu/.