Beryllium-10 facts for kids

Beryllium-10 (¹⁰Be) is a radioisotope of beryllium. It is formed in the Earth's atmosphere mainly by cosmic ray spallation of nitrogen and oxygen. Beryllium-10 has a half-life of 1.39 × 10⁶ years. It decays by beta decay to boron-10. It has a maximum energy of 556.2 keV. It decays through the reaction ¹⁰Be→¹⁰B + e⁻.

¹⁰Be and its daughter product have been used to study soil erosion, soil formation from regolith, the development of lateritic soils and the age of ice cores. It is also formed in nuclear explosions by a reaction of fast neutrons with ¹³C in the carbon dioxide in air.

Images for kids

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  Plot showing variations in solar activity, including variation in 10Be concentration which varies inversely with solar activity. (Note that the beryllium scale is inverted, so increases on this scale indicate lower beryllium-10 levels).

See also

In Spanish: Berilio 10 para niños