Regional beryllium-10 production rate for the mid-elevation mountainous regions in central Europe, deduced from a multi-method study of moraines and lake sediments in the Black Forest.

Beryllium-10 cosmic-ray exposure (CRE) dating has revolutionized our understanding of glacier fluctuations around the globe. A key prerequisite for the successful application of this dating method is the determination of regional production rates of in situ accumulated 10 Be, usually inferred at independently dated calibration sites. Until now, no calibration site has been available for the mid-elevation mountain ranges of central Europe. We fill this gap by determining in situ 10 Be concentrations in large boulders on moraines and by applying radiocarbon and infrared-stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dating to stratigraphically younger lake sediments in the southern Black Forest, SW Germany. The dating methods yielded concordant results, and, based on age–depth modelling with 14 C ages, the age of a cryptotephra, and IRSL ages, we deduced a regional 10 Be production rate in quartz. Calibrating the Black Forest production rate (BFPR) in the Cosmic-Ray Exposure program (CREp) resulted in a spallogenic sea-level and high-latitude (SLHL) production rate of 3.64±0.11 atoms 10 Be g -1 quartz a -1 when referring to time-dependent Lal–Stone scaling, the European Reanalysis (ERA)-40 atmosphere model, and the atmospheric 10 Be-based geomagnetic database in CREp. The BFPR turned out to be ∼11 % lower than both those at the nearest calibration site in the Alps (4.10±0.10 atoms 10 Be g -1 quartz a -1 at SLHL) and the canonical global 10 Be production rate (4.11±0.19 atoms 10 Be g -1 quartz a -1 at SLHL) in CREp. A stronger weathering and snow cover bias and a higher impact of forest, soil, moss, and shrub cover at the study site likely explain this discrepancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]