A technique to calculate basin-averaged erosion rates from 10Be concentrations in quartz river sands was pioneered in the mid-1990s. Basin-averaged erosion rates represent the long-term surface lowering for the entire basin upstream from the measurement point. This is a relatively inexpensive technique that could provide a baseline for sediment production in basins. We hypothesize that trends will exist between basin-averaged erosion and rates of reservoir sedimentation, which may allow the 10Be-derived measurements of basin-averaged erosion to be used as a proxy for reservoir sedimentation. Therefore, an inexpensive measurement could be used to better understand sedimentation rates in reservoirs where funds are not available for expensive reservoir surveys.
