Continuous Thermal Histories from Inversion of Closure Profi les

Most geophysical processes impart a characteristic thermal signature to the crust that can be preserved in the form of isotopic variations in radiogenic minerals. Reading the record of these events using thermochronology permits unprecedented insights into the timing and rates of key dynamic processes, such as rifting, thrust faulting, tectonic denudation, erosion/incision, and magmatism, that may otherwise go unnoticed (McDougall and Harrison 1999). However, thermal disturbances are often too subtle to be revealed by conventional thermochronometric methods; i.e., interpolation of discrete temperature-time (T-t) points from bulk analyses using “nominal” closure temperatures. Rather, the highest resolution thermal histories require harnessing knowledge of the concentration distribution of the daughter product in the mineral of interest.