9 Cenozoic Tectonics in Asia and North America: Linking Processes Across Scales (Posters)

This session invites research integrating geologic, geomorphic, and paleoclimate data to advance understanding on orogenesis, seismic hazards, and global change.

Monday, 18 May 2026
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Alvarado D/E

Refining the Use of Meteoric Beryllium-10 for Sediment Dating and Fault Identification in the Japan Trench

Paper number: 9-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

Meteoric Beryllium-10 (10Be) has been proposed as a valuable tool for dating sediments and identifying faults in deep marine accretionary prisms, as it relies on the accumulation and radioactive decay of naturally occurring meteoric isotopes within sediments.While the use of 10Be has been widely applied in terrestrial settings, the reliability of 10Be as a dating method in sediment with variable composition, grain sizes, and depositional environments has not been well established for offshore tectonic environments, such as the Japan Trench given the trench prism’s chaotic seismic and structural nature. We analyzed 10Be concentrations from offshore Japan to date marine sediments from cores from non-deformed and deformed sections in the incoming plate and frontal prism. We evaluated how variations in grain size, elemental concentration, and biogenic silica concentrations influence 10Be ages and concentrations, potentially leading to the misidentification of faults. For marine sediments we found that: 1) 10Be concentrations are depleted in the coarsest-grained fractions associated with sandy turbidites, 2) Elemental percentages of Rubidium (Rb) and Chromium (Cr) and Iron (Fe) are correlated to heightened 10Be concentrations, and 3) there is no significant relationship between 10Be and biogenic silica percentages in the study area. These correlations suggest that variations in grain size and the abundance of terrigenous minerals may influence how 10Be is retained or incorporated into sediments. Understanding these relationships within the Japan Trench is essential for refining the application of 10Be as a geochronological tool for sediment dating and fault identification.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410608

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