Orographic and convective precipitation control meteoric 10Be wet depositional fluxes at low latitude
(2026) Earth and Planetary Science Letters — Vol. 674, p. 119759 (2026)
Files
Paque et al (2026).pdf
Open Access - Adobe PDF
- 2.64 MB
Details
- Authors
Paque, Rose 
Christl, Marcus
- Abstract
- Be m) as a tracer of Earth surface processes requires understanding the factors that control 10 Be m depositional fluxes. How precipitation influences 10 Be m depositional fluxes is still debated, especially at low latitudes where little empirical flux data exist. To investigate how precipitation amount and type (drizzle vs. intense rain) influence meteoric 10 Be depositional patterns in equatorial regions, we measured 10 Be m concentrations in rain across a 10-fold precipitation gradient on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos Archipelago (Ecuador) over one hydrological year. The island's climate is characterized by a cool season, with aridity in the lowlands and persistent fog and drizzle in the highlands, and a warm season marked by localized, intense convective precipitation. Measured 10 Be m concentrations during the warm season decrease with increasing precipitation. Conversely, during the cool season 10 Be m concentrations increase with increasing precipitation. We attribute this behavior to dilution of 10 Be m concentrations during intense precipitation events in the warm season and enhanced efficiency of scavenging of 10 Be m bearing aerosols by fog droplets during the cool season. Overall, enhanced scavenging outweighs dilution, and annual fluxes show a greater-than-linear increase with precipitation. Our dataset demonstrates that 10 Be m concentrations in rain near the equator vary spatially and temporally as a function of precipitation type. We recommend taking atmospheric processes leading to cloud and fog formation into account when assessing wet depositional fluxes of 10 Be m , as these may enhance 10 Be m scavenging from the atmosphere.
- Affiliations
Citations
Paque, R., Moore, A., Dixon, J., Christl, M., Montes, Y., & Vanacker, V. (2026). Orographic and convective precipitation control meteoric 10Be wet depositional fluxes at low latitude. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 674, 119759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119759 (Original work published 2026)