Scientists have detected an unusual accumulation of radioactive beryllium-10 beneath the Pacific Ocean, dating back approximately ten million years. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, could serve as a new time marker for marine archives and help researchers better understand the evolution of the planet’s crust.
Beryllium-10 is produced when oxygen and nitrogen atoms interact with high-energy protons in the Earth’s atmosphere. Its half-life is 1.4 million years, allowing scientists to date samples up to ten million years old. The team analyzed geological samples from the Pacific Ocean’s bed, using accelerator mass spectrometry to measure the proportion of boron isotopes.
The results were surprising: almost twice as much beryllium-10 was detected at 10 million years ago than expected. While the cause is still unknown, researchers suggest two possibilities. A “grand reorganization” of ocean currents could have deposited more beryllium-10 in the Pacific, or a powerful celestial event, such as a near-Earth supernova, may have intensified cosmic radiation ten million years ago.
Further analysis and measurements are needed to determine the cause of the anomaly. If similar discoveries are made in other oceans, it would support the astrophysical hypothesis, suggesting that the anomaly was a global phenomenon.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-detect-huge-radioactive-anomaly-161515338.html