Deciphering the cosmogenic code to learn Earth’s surface history

Abstract

Galactic cosmic rays continually bombard Earth’s upper atmosphere, causing a cascade of secondary particle fluxes. The more energetic components of this particle cascade penetrate the atmosphere and interact with the nuclear building blocks within the minerals that compose the rocks on Earth’s surface, producing a wide variety of secondary nuclides.Text © 2016. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0