Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (16) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Tagami, T. Articles by O’Sullivan, P. B. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Fundamentals of Fission-Track Thermochronology

Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences Graduate School of Science Kyoto University Kyoto 606-8502, Japan, tagami@kueps.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Paul B. O’Sullivan

Apatite to Zircon, Inc. 1075 Matson Road Viola, Idaho 83872-9709, U.S.A., osullivan@apatite.com

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

	INTRODUCTION

 
Fission-track (FT) analysis has developed into one of the most useful techniques used throughout the geologic community to reconstruct the low-temperature thermal history of rocks over geological time. The FT method is based on the accumulation of narrow damage trails (i.e., fission tracks) in uranium-rich mineral grains (e.g., apatite, zircon, titanite) and natural glasses, which form as a result of spontaneous nuclear fission decay of ²³⁸U in nature (Price and Walker 1963; Fleischer et al. 1975). The time elapsed since fission tracks began to accumulate is estimated by determining the density of accumulated tracks in a particular material in relation to the uranium content of that material. Chemical etching can be used to enlarge fission tracks that have formed within a mineral in order to make them readily observable under an ordinary optical microscope (Price and Walker 1962).

If a host rock is subjected to elevated temperatures, fission tracks that have formed up to that point in time are shortened progressively and eventually erased by the thermal recovery (i.e., annealing) of the damage (Fleischer et al. 1975). Because thermal diffusion basically governs the annealing process, the reduction in FT length is a function of heating time and temperature. Importantly, fission tracks are partially annealed over different temperature intervals within different minerals. This characteristic allows for the construction of time-temperature paths of many different rock types by (a) plotting FT (and other isotopic) ages from different minerals versus their closure temperatures, which is applicable in the case of a monotonous cooling history (e.g., Wagner et al. 1977; Zeilter et al. 1982), and/or by (b) the inverse modeling of observed FT age and confined track length data (e.g., Corrigan 1991; Lutz and Omar 1991; Gallagher 1995; Ketcham et al. 2000; . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. K. Hourigan, M. T. Brandon, A. V. Soloviev, A. B. Kirmasov, J. I. Garver, J. Stevenson, and P. W. Reiners Eocene arc-continent collision and crustal consolidation in Kamchatka, Russian Far East Am J Sci, May 1, 2009; 309(5): 333 - 396. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Parra, A. Mora, C. Jaramillo, M. R. Strecker, E. R. Sobel, L. Quiroz, M. Rueda, and V. Torres Orogenic wedge advance in the northern Andes: Evidence from the Oligocene-Miocene sedimentary record of the Medina Basin, Eastern Cordillera, Colombia Geological Society of America Bulletin, May 1, 2009; 121(5-6): 780 - 800. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. A. Donelick, P. B. O'Sullivan, and R. A. Ketcham Apatite Fission-Track Analysis Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 58(1): 49 - 94. [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Tagami Zircon Fission-Track Thermochronology and Applications to Fault Studies Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 58(1): 95 - 122. [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. J. Dunai Forward Modeling and Interpretation of (U-Th)/He Ages Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 58(1): 259 - 274. [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. F. Stockli Application of Low-Temperature Thermochronometry to Extensional Tectonic Settings Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 58(1): 411 - 448. [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. A. Armstrong Thermochronometers in Sedimentary Basins Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 58(1): 499 - 525. [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. P. Kohn, A. J.W. Gleadow, R. W. Brown, K. Gallagher, M. Lorencak, and W. P. Noble Visualizing Thermotectonic and Denudation Histories Using Apatite Fission Track Thermochronology Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 58(1): 527 - 565. [Full Text] [PDF]