RPM-CRN

Rocky Profile Model with Cosmogenic Radionuclides (RPM-CRN)

RPM-CRN is an exploratory numerical model for the coevolution of rock coasts and the accumulation of cosmogenic radionuclides such as ¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al and ¹⁴C in rock near the Earth surface.

Motivation

Why on Earth would you want to model that?

Good question! Rock coasts evolve relatively slowly and oftentimes episodically, and because they are erosive in nature there is little evidence of their former state. These two factors compound to make it difficult to constrain the nature of processes that dictate their evolution, and associated rates of change across appropriately long timescales (centuries to millennia). Measuring how rapidly rock coasts have evolved in the past is important to understand how they will react to future environmental change.

Recent developments in numerical modelling of rock coast weathering and erosion processes have shed new light on the fundamental controls on rock coast evolution at these timescales.

In parallel, measurement of the concentration of rare cosmogenic radionuclides (CRNs) that accumulate in rocks at the coast is providing a new empirical basis for understanding the development of rock coasts over similarly long timescales. The accumulation of CRNs occurs most rapidly when rocks are near to the Earth surface, and thus the rates and processes by which rocks are unveiled at the coast is a first order control on the amount of CRNs that will be found in rock samples at the coast.

Thus, numerical models that account for the morphological development of the shore platform coupled with modelled CRN production, such as this one, are vital if measured CRN concentrations are to reveal the style and pace of rock coast morphodynamics.

This model combines the Rocky Profile Model (RPM) developed by Matsumoto et al (2016) and the CRN components of the Rock and Bottom Coastal Profile (RoBoCoP) Model (Hurst et al., 2017).

For a walkthrough to run the model with default parameter options, see Getting Started

The model is released under a GNU General Public Licence. Please see the project license for further details.