Presenter
Aratz Beranoaguirre, Ph.D.
Head of the LA-ICPMS Lab
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Germany
Description
The U-Pb isotopic system is the oldest and most used radiometric method for dating rock and minerals, since its discovery at the end of the 19th century. Traditionally, it has been used to date minerals with a high U and little Pb content, such as zircon, monazite or rutile. Due to the recent developments that occurred in instrumentation and analytical capabilities, above all related to the LA-ICPMS techniques, the applicability of the U–Pb geochronometer has greatly expanded. Nowadays geochronologists are able to increase the spatial resolution of the analyses (analysing smaller amounts of sample) or to analyse minerals with fewer U content. Thus, in the last decade, a new branch of geochronology is opening up, which deals with the U-Pb dating of minerals with little U and/or variable Pb content. During the talk, the LA-ICPMS technique employed in these analyses will be explained and some examples of recently dated minerals will be shown.
