Problems of Dating Mica by the Fission-Track Method

1973 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Lakatos ◽  
Donald S. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Annealing ◽  
Fission Track ◽  
Water Pressure ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Effect Of Water ◽  
Track Method ◽  
Uranium Distribution ◽  
Fission Track Ages

Discordant 'fission-track ages' on mica may be caused by (a) non-uniform uranium distribution, (b) addition or loss of uranium during the existence of the mineral, (c) thermal annealing of tracks, (d) inefficient etching of fossil tracks as compared to induced tracks in the mica, and (e) the effect of water pressure on track stability. The result of the combined effect of these factors causing discordant 'fission-track ages' on mica is at present unpredictable. Therefore, in the case of mica, interpretation of such ages is suspect.

Fission-track ages of late Cenozoic distal tephra beds in the Yukon Territory and Alaska

1982 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 2167-2178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy D. Naeser ◽  
John A. Westgate ◽  
Owen L. Hughes ◽  
Troy L. Péwé
Keyword(s):  
Fission Track ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Geologic History ◽  
Detailed Characterization ◽  
Track Method ◽  
History Of ◽  
Characterization Studies ◽  
Fission Track Ages ◽  
Tephra Beds

Six distal tephra beds from the Yukon Territory and Alaska have been dated by the fission-track method. Zircon and glass ages were determined for the Fort Selkirk and Lost Chicken tephra beds, but only glass ages for the others.Assuming that no track fading has occurred in the glass, Old Crow and Dawson tephra beds are younger than 120 000 and 52 000 years BP, respectively. Mosquito Gulch tephra is 1.22 Ma old, Fort Selkirk tephra is about 1 Ma old, the Ester Ash Bed is 0.45 Ma old, and the best estimate of the age of Lost Chicken tephra is the range 1.7–2.6 Ma.It is evident from these results and from the known abundance of tephra beds within late Cenozoic deposits of the Yukon Territory and Alaska that application of the fission-track method to distal tephra, in conjunction with detailed characterization studies, offers great potential for elucidation of the late Cenozoic geologic history of Alaska and the Yukon Territory.

Downstream Changes of Alpine Zircon Fission-Track Ages in the Rhone and Rhine Rivers

2004 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Bernet ◽  
M. T. Brandon ◽  
J. I. Garver ◽  
B. Molitor
Keyword(s):  
Fission Track ◽  
Zircon Fission Track ◽  
Fission Track Ages

Correction of thermally-lowered fission-track ages of minerals and glasses: The importance of the prolonged etching factor

1981 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 101-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.R. Hashemi-Nezhad ◽  
S.A. Durrani
Keyword(s):  
Fission Track ◽  
Etching Factor ◽  
Fission Track Ages

Uplift of the lesser Himalayas, Northern Pakistan, as inferred from fission-track ages of sphene, epidote, and zircon

1981 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 252
Author(s):  
P.K. Zeitler ◽  
R.A.K. Tahirkheli ◽  
C.W. Naeser ◽  
N.M. Johnson ◽  
J.B. Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Fission Track ◽  
Northern Pakistan ◽  
Lesser Himalayas ◽  
Fission Track Ages

Fission-Track Ages of Tuff Layers Related to the Pliocene-Pleistocene Boundary on the Boso Peninsula, Japan

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masao Kasuya
Keyword(s):  
Fission Track ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Boso Peninsula ◽  
Normal Polarity ◽  
Fission Track Ages ◽  
Age Constraints

AbstractFission-track ages of zircon crystals from four tuff layers in the late Cenozoic sediment sequence of the Boso Peninsula,.Japan, are 1.6 ± 0.2 myr (the Kurotaki Formation), 5.5 ± 0.6 and 5.2 ± 0.5 myr (the uppermost part of the Amatsu Formation), and 11.5 ± 0.8 myr (the middle part of the Amatsu Formation). These ages provide numerical age constraints on magneto-biostratigraphy. The normal polarity interval in the lower part of the Kiwada Formation corresponds to the Olduvai polarity subzone. The boundary between the Pliocene and Pleistocene lies slightly above the Olduvai polarity subzone.

scholarly journals Polyphase evolution of Pelagonia (northern Greece) revealed by geological and fission-track data

Solid Earth ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. L. Schenker ◽  
M. G. Fellin ◽  
J.-P. Burg
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Fission Track ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Normal Faults ◽  
Recent Sediment ◽  
Northern Greece ◽  
Rapid Cooling ◽  
Fission Track Ages ◽  
Pelagonian Zone

Abstract. The Pelagonian zone, situated between the External Hellenides/Cyclades to the west and the Axios/Vardar/Almopias zone (AVAZ) and the Rhodope to the east, was involved in late Early Cretaceous and in Late Cretaceous–Eocene orogenic events whose duration and extent are still controversial. This paper constrains their late thermal imprints. New and previously published zircon (ZFT) and apatite (AFT) fission-track ages show cooling below 240 °C of the metamorphic western AVAZ imbricates between 102 and 93–90 Ma, of northern Pelagonia between 86 and 68 Ma, of the eastern AVAZ at 80 Ma and of the western Rhodope at 72 Ma. At the regional scale, this heterogeneous cooling is coeval with subsidence of Late Cretaceous marine basin(s) that unconformably covered the Early Cretaceous (130–110 Ma) thrust system from 100 Ma. Thrusting resumed at 70 Ma in the AVAZ and migrated across Pelagonia to reach the External Hellenides at 40–38 Ma. Renewed thrusting in Pelagonia is attested at 68 Ma by abrupt and rapid cooling below 240 °C and erosion of the gneissic rocks. ZFT and AFT in western and eastern Pelagonia, respectively, testify at ~40 Ma to the latest thermal imprint related to thrusting. Central-eastern Pelagonia cooled rapidly and uniformly from 240 to 80 °C between 24 and 16 Ma in the footwall of a major extensional fault. Extension started even earlier, at ~33 Ma in the western AVAZ. Post-7 Ma rapid cooling is inferred from inverse modeling of AFT lengths. It occurred while E–W normal faults were cutting Pliocene-to-recent sediment.

Low-temperature thermal history of the Gilmore Dome area, Fairbanks Mining District, Alaska

1993 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 764-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Murphy ◽  
Arne Bakke
Keyword(s):  
Gold Deposit ◽  
Fission Track ◽  
Hydrothermal Fluids ◽  
Mining District ◽  
Cooling Path ◽  
Alteration Assemblage ◽  
Zircon Fission Track ◽  
History Of ◽  
Maximum Temperatures ◽  
Fission Track Ages

Eight apatite and two zircon fission-track ages provide evidence of complex Tertiary thermal overprinting by hydrothermal fluids in the Gilmore Dome area. Five ages on apatite from the Fort Knox gold deposit average 41 Ma, one from the Stepovich prospect is 80 Ma, and two from Pedro Dome average 67 Ma. Elevations of these samples overlap but their ages do not, indicating that each area experienced a different thermal history.Ages of apatite from the Fort Knox gold deposit decrease with elevation from 42 to 36 Ma but have data trends indicative of complex cooling. Two ~51 Ma ages on zircon indicate that maximum temperatures approached or exceeded ~180 °C. An alteration assemblage of chalcedony + zeolite + calcite + clay in the deposit resulted from deposition by a paleo-hydrothermal system. The data suggest that the system followed a complex cooling path from > 180 to < 110 °C between 51 and 36 Ma, and that final cooling to below 60 °C occurred after ~25 Ma.The 80 Ma age from Stepovich prospect either resulted from cooling after intrusion of the underlying pluton (~90 Ma) or records postintrusion thermal overprinting sometime after ~50 Ma. The 67 Ma samples from Pedro Dome may also have experienced partial age reduction during later heating. The differences in the data from the different areas and the presence of a late alteration assemblage at Fort Knox suggest that the fluids responsible for heating were largely confined to the highly fractured and porous Fort Knox pluton.

Effects of Etching on Zircon Grains and its Implications for the Fission Track Method

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 545-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Alberto Tello Sáenz ◽  
Eduardo Augusto Campos Curvo ◽  
Airton Natanael Coelho Dias ◽  
Cleber José Soares ◽  
Carlos José Leopoldo Constantino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Crystal Lattice ◽  
Fission Track ◽  
Surface Characteristics ◽  
Optical Microscope ◽  
Etching Time ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Track Method ◽  
Zircon Fission Track ◽  
Natural Zircon

Studies of zircon grains using optical microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been carried out to characterize the surface of natural zircon as a function of etching time. According to the surface characteristics observed using an optical microscope after etching, the zircon grains were classified as: (i) homogeneous; (ii) anomalous, and (iii) hybrid. Micro-Raman results showed that, as etching time increases, the crystal lattice is slightly altered for homogeneous grains, it is completely damaged for anomalous grains, and it is altered in some areas for hybrid grains. The SEM (energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, EDS) results indicated that, independent of the grain types, where the crystallinity remains after etching, the chemical composition of zircon is approximately 33% SiO2:65% ZrO2 (standard natural zircon), and for areas where the grain does not have a crystalline structure, there are variations of ZrO2 and, mainly, SiO2. In addition, it is possible to observe a uniform surface density of fission tracks in grain areas where the determined crystal lattice and chemical composition are those of zircon. Regarding hybrid grains, we discuss whether the areas slightly altered by the chemical etching can be analyzed by the fission track method (FTM) or not. Results of zircon fission track and U-Pb dating show that hybrid and homogeneous grains can be used for dating, and not only homogeneous grains. More than 50 sedimentary samples from the Bauru Basin (southeast Brazil) were analyzed and show that only a small amount of grains are homogeneous (10%), questioning the validity of the rest of the grains for thermo-chronological evolution studies using zircon FTM dating.

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