  Beryllium stellar abundances were suggested to be a good tracer of time in
the early Galaxy. In an investigation of its use as a cosmochronometer, using a
large sample of local halo and thick-disk dwarfs, evidence was found that in a
log(Be/H) vs. [alpha/Fe] diagram the halo stars separate into two components.
One is consistent with predictions of evolutionary models while the other is
chemically indistinguishable from the thick-disk stars. This is interpreted as
a difference in the star formation history of the two components and suggests
that the local halo is not a single uniform population where a clear
age-metallicity relation can be defined.
