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A group of researchers has found a strange radioactive anomaly at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. And he has done it twice. The protagonist of the strange finding is a radioactive isotope of Beryllium, beryllium-10 (10be).
Something weird happens on the ocean floor. The anomaly corresponds to a high concentration of this isotope in the strata of the seabed, which It has been detected In two points away from the Pacific Ocean, so it could be the indication of a generalized phenomenon.
Experts do not know what this anomalous concentration of the isotope has caused, but they have several hypotheses that include astrophysical events or changes in ocean currents. Whatever the causative event, the team responsible for the finding has estimated that this happened about 10 million years ago.
Product of a shock. The beryllium-10 is a rare isotope that is formed on our planet when cosmic rays cross our atmosphere and interacts with oxygen and hydrogen in it. The beryllium formed falls on the sea and ends up joining marine sediments.
The semi -experience of these nuclei is approximately 1.4 million years old. After this time, half of the nuclei will have declined in Boro. Like others Radionucleids (Unstable forms of an element that decompose releasing radiation by becoming a more stable isotope), this beryllium is very useful in geological dating.
Geological calendar. One of the best known radioisotpos is carbon-14 present in organic samples. In addition to the fact that carbon-14 is present only in organic samples, the time fork it gives us is relatively scarce: it can only serve us to date objects of up to 50,000 years old. The 10be, instead it allows us to ride ourselves 10 million years ago.
A few surprising samples. The unexpected beryllium was found when studying a geological sample extracted from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of several kilometers. The team examined the samples through a mass spectrometry with accelerator to evaluate its beryllium content and date its different strata.
What they found was an anomaly in the sediments of about 10 million years ago. They came across that in this area the amount of 10be was double the one who would expect. The team examined several samples to contrast that it was not a contaminated sample.
The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Nature Communications.
Different hypotheses. The big question is now what caused this unexpected accumulation of 10be. The team responsible for the finding raises two possible hypotheses to explain this one, one related to marine currents and the second with astronomical events.
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Image | Hzdr / Koll, Lachner, et al. (2025)
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