SUERC awarded the EARTHTIME 205Pb-233U-235U tracer solution

Darren Mark, Anne Kelly and Vincent Gallagher application for the EARTHTIME 5-3-5 tracer solution successful. The tracer is expected to arrive at SUERC autumn 2020 and will allow for significant improvements in accuracy and precision for U-Pb ages owing to improved fractionation control during mass spectrometric measurement.

 

a selection of EARTHTIME standard solutions

The application demonstrated:

  • Accurate calibration of our existing spike with the ET and JMM gravimetric standards available from EARTHTIME.
  • Development of a data set for synthetic zircon solutions with sub per mil reproducibility on single zircon analyses (ET100, see plot below)
  • Development of a data set of single crystal analyses using chemical abrasion for TEMORA zircon, which demonstrates per mil accuracy and precision on single analyses, and less on weighted mean dates (see plot below)
  • Demonstrated low total common Pb (Pbc) for zircon analyses with values typically ranging from 0.6 to 0.9 pg Pbc.

plot showing single zircon U-Pb analyses on synthetic zircon

plot showing single crystal U-Pb analyses on TEMORA zircon

The high-precision geochronology laboratory at SUERC (Ar/Ar and U-Pb) is open for collaborative studies. Please contact Darren.Mark@glasgow.ac.uk for details.

First published: 25 August 2020

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