Beryllium-10 facts for kids

Beryllium-10 (often written as ¹⁰Be) is a special kind of beryllium atom that is radioactive. Think of it as a tiny clock that slowly changes over time.

It is mostly made high up in the Earth's atmosphere. This happens when powerful particles from space, called cosmic rays, crash into atoms of nitrogen and oxygen. These collisions break the atoms apart and create new ones, including beryllium-10.

Beryllium-10 is very stable for a radioactive atom. It has a half-life of about 1.39 million years. This means it takes 1.39 million years for half of a sample of beryllium-10 to change into something else. It slowly changes into boron-10 through a process called beta decay, which means it gives off a tiny electron.

How Beryllium-10 Helps Us Learn About Earth

Scientists use beryllium-10 to understand many things about our planet.

Studying Soil and Land Changes

Because beryllium-10 is made in the atmosphere and then falls to Earth, it can help us study how land changes.

• It helps scientists learn about soil erosion, which is when soil is washed or blown away.
• It also helps understand how soil forms from regolith (the loose material on top of bedrock).
• Scientists can even study the development of certain types of soil, like lateritic soils.

Dating Ice Cores

Beryllium-10 is also very useful for dating ice cores. These are long cylinders of ice drilled from glaciers or ice sheets.

• As beryllium-10 falls onto the ice, it gets trapped in the layers.
• By measuring how much beryllium-10 is in different layers, scientists can figure out how old the ice is. This helps them learn about Earth's past climate.

Images for kids

• 

  Plot showing how solar activity changes. It also shows how the amount of beryllium-10 changes, which is usually the opposite of solar activity. (The beryllium scale is upside down, so higher numbers mean less beryllium-10).

See also

In Spanish: Berilio 10 para niños