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Home » Environment and energy » Earth sciences » Radioactive anomaly appears in the deep ocean

Radioactive anomaly appears in the deep ocean

27 Feb 2025 Isabelle Dumé
Illustration of the production and incorporation of cosmogenic beryllium-10 into ferromanganese crusts. The main image shows beryllium atoms (represented by orange dots) being produced in an aurora-drenched sky and then falling down to the bottom of the ocean. An inset image on the right contains a photo of an ocean crust sample and a graph showing a peak in beryllium-10 abundance 10 million years ago.
Cosmic origins: Beryllium-10 is produced in the upper atmosphere and eventually incorporated into ferromanganese crusts in the deep ocean. Around 10 million years ago, the amount deposited in these crusts increased substantially, for reasons still unexplained. (Courtesy: HZDR / blrck.de)
Something extraordinary happened on Earth around 10 million years ago, and whatever it was, it left

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Isabelle Dumé is a contributing editor to Physics World
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