At the heart of Bond’s work are two important geological / geochemical processes:
- Sedimentary provenance analysis is the methodology of linking a sedimentary sequence
to its source area. Most sediments and sedimentary rocks have origins in erosion products in uplifted areas of the continental masses. These erosion products are gathered by river systems and transported to the sea where they accumulate on the continental shelves. The main tools employed to determine provenance are:
a. Bulk chemistry
b. Mineralogy, especially exotic minerals
c. Isotope composition
d. Sedimentary structures - Cosmogenic isotope variations. Cosmogenic isotopes are formed in the atmosphere by
the action of galactic cosmic rays on existing isotopes of N and O most notably to produce 14C and 10Be. Both of these isotopes are naturally radioactive and decay to 14N and 10B respectively.