Thermal annealing of unetched fission tracks in apatite

Thermal annealing mechanisms of latent tracks: Apatite versus zircon

Etched tracks of apatite and zircon are both widely used for the determination of the thermal history of Earth’s crust. The present understanding of the annealing process is largely limited to mathematical fits to data for etched track-lengths as a function of temperature and time. Details of the annealing of unetched, latent tracks at the atomic scale have remained elusive, as the original tra...

Thermal annealing mechanisms of latent fission tracks: Apatite vs. zircon

Highly porous tracks in fluorapatite

In volatile-rich fluorapatite, which represents 70 % of all fission track age-determinations, tracks produced along the trajectories of fission fragments have been considered to be cylinders of radiation-damaged amorphous material, similar to tracks in other minerals, such as zircon [1]. The atomic-scale structure of unetched fission tracks controls temperature-induced “fading” and finally lead...

Ion-Track Annealing Kinetics in Apatite

Fission tracks in minerals, such as apatite and zircon, generated by energetic nuclear fragments that result from spontaneous fission of U, are used for determining the age and thermal history of Earth’s crust. Taken together with other techniques, the data infer rates of tectonic uplift and landscape evolution [1]. At elevated temperatures, these tracks shrink in size and fragment into section...

Cooling history and exhumation of the nepheline syenites, NW Iran: constraints from apatite fission track

Thermal history and apatite fission-track ages were determined for the Kaleybar, Razgah and Bozqush alkaline intrusions which display Eocene-Oligocene stratigraphic age. These subduction-related intrusions are located in the Alborz-Azarbaijan magmatic belt which is characterized by a Paleogene magmatic flare-up associated with extensional/transtensional tectonism. The mean of Uranium content an...