• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.21-31
• /
• 2019

Timing of terrace formation is a key information for understanding the evolution of fluvial systems. In particular, dating strath terrace (i.e. timing of terrace abandonment) is more difficult than depositional terrace that is conventionally constrained by radiocarbon, OSL and other dating methods targeting samples within terrace deposit. Surface exposure dating utilizing cosmogenic ¹⁰Be provides more reliability because it can be applied directly to the surface of a fluvial terrace. Thus, this method has been increasingly used for alluvial deposits. As well as other geomorphic surfaces over the last decades. Some inherent conditions, however, such as post-depositional ¹⁰Be concentration (i.e. inheritance), surface erosion rate, and density change challenge the application of cosmogenic ¹⁰Be to depositional terrace surface against simple bedrock surface. Here we present the first application of ¹⁰Be depth profile dating to a thin-gravel covered strath terrace in Korea. Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) helped us in better constraining the timing of abandonment of the strath terrace, since which its surface stochastically denuded with time, causing unexpected change of ¹⁰Be production with depth. The age of the strath terrace estimated by MCS was 109 ka, ~4% older than the one (104 ka) calculated by simple depth profile dating, which yielded the best-fit surface erosion rate of 2.1 mm/ka. Our study demonstrates that the application of ¹⁰Be depth profile dating of strath terrace using MCS is more robust and reliable because it considers post-depositional change of initial conditions such as erosion rate.