AMS exposure dating : a case study from Himalaya and Tibet and its application potentials in earth science studies in India

The development of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has made possible low level (10-6 atoms/gm) measurements of 10Be, 14C, 26Al, 36Cl, 129I isotopes in geological materials. Early studies investigated 10Be atoms of cosmogenic nuclides produced mainly in the atmosphere (called garden variety), which subsequently admixed with the geological material from land surfaces get transported into the ocean waters and fixed in the ocean sediments. Subsequently, focus shifted to in-situ produced long-lived isotopes in quartz and their measurement in the terrestrial samples. This opened a new field of exposure dating and its potential applications in earth sciences and their role to study the time controlled processes resulting in diverse geomorphic landforms