Cosmogenic Ne-21 exposure ages of glacial boulders constrained by local bedrock erosion rates in Ong Valley, Antarctica

In order to accurately determine the exposure age of glacial boulders with cosmogenic nuclides, we need to know something about the erosion rate of the rock and any previous exposure the boulder may have had. Commonly, the erosion rate is simply assumed, and inheritance is dealt with by both sampling strategy and removing outliers from the data. In this study, we determine the rock erosion rate by measuring the concentration of cosmogenic Ne-21 in granite bedrock samples. This is used to constrain the exposure age of glacial boulders of the same lithology from the same locale. Ong Valley, Antarctica, (157.5 East, 83.25 South) is an ice-free valley in the Miller Range of the Central Transantarctic Mountains. The valley contains three distinct glacial drifts, and the oldest of these is well defined by an end moraine. We collected samples from six boulders on this end moraine, and six additional samples from the surrounding bedrock that is composed of the same lithology, the Hope Granite. The bedrock samples were collected from the ridge bordering the valley, well above the glacial limit. Because the bedrock samples have not been shielded by ice and have been exposed for millions of years, the concentration of cosmogenic Ne-21 in these samples reflects only the erosion rate of the granite. We separated quartz from the granite samples following standard laboratory methods and measured the concentration of cosmogenic Ne-21 in the quartz at the BGC Noble Gas Thermochronometry Lab. The concentration of cosmogenic Ne-21 in the bedrock samples is interpreted as reflecting only the erosion rate. We can then assume that the erosion rate of the bedrock is equal to the erosion rate of the glacial boulders on the end moraine because they have the same lithology and have been subjected to the same climate conditions during their exposure. With this information, we can better constrain the exposure age of the glacial boulders in Ong Valley.