The Stirling Range Formation of southwestern Australia contains discoidal impressions and trace-like fossils in tidal sandstones. The various disks have previously been linked to the Ediacaran biota, younger than 600 million years old. From this unit, we report U-Th-Pb geochronology of detrital zircon and monazite, as well as low-grade metamorphic monazite, constraining the depositional age to ...

Introduction: We have developed and tested a bench-top version of a Laser Desorption Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometer (LDRIMS) instrument for rubidium-strontium (Rb-Sr) geochronology. Current results are sufficient for radiometric dating (±0.1%), though we are working on increasing the precision of the measurement to a more optimal precision for geochronology of ±0.02%. Currently, a sampl...