Application of in situ-produced cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al to the study of lateritic soil development in tropical forest: theory and examples from Cameroon and Gabon

Abstract Depth profiles of in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides, including 10 Be ( T 1/2 =1.5×10 6 years) and 26 Al ( T 1/2 0.73×10 6 years), in the upper few meters of the Earth's crust may be used to study surficial processes, quantifying denudation and burial rates and elucidating mechanisms involved in landform evolution and soil formations. In this paper, we discuss the fundamentals of the method and apply it to two lateritic sequences located in African tropical forests.