A study on a Pb accumulation-decay model for dating moraine soils to trace glacier retreat time.

This paper reports work exploring the potential for using the natural fallout radionuclide Pb to date moraine soils for tracing glacier retreat. Based on the physical processes of Pb deposition, decay and losses due to runoff, aPb accumulation-decay model (A=I[1-λ1-λ-b(c-λ)c-λ] ) was developed, where A = Pb inventory (Bq·m); I = annual inventory of Pb deposition (Bq·m); λ =  Pb decay coefficient (0.969); n = time span (years); b and c = Pb loss coefficients for the runoff pathway.