Apatite Fission-Track Analysis as a Paleotemperature Indicator for Hydrocarbon Exploration

Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic thermotectonic evolution of the central Brooks Range and adjacent North Slope foreland basin, Alaska: Including fission track results from the Trans‐Alaska Crustal Transect (TACT)

“…Data in this study have been interpreted using the system response [Green et al, 1989a [Till, 1992], and therefore blueschist facies rocks which are exposed today must have been at the surface by -105 Ma. Miller and Hudson [1991] proposed that regional-wide extension was necessary to unroof the highpressure/low-temperature metamorphic rocks of the southern Brooks Range.…”

“…Fission tracks from apatites within rocks record the lowtemperature thermal history of the host rock Green et al, 1989a,b]. By combining both age and confined-length measurements, apatite fission track data provide not only estimates of maximum temperatures and the time of cooling from maximum temperatures [Green et al, 1989a] but also allow determination of the thermal history (time-temperature path) experienced by the host rock. When fission tracks form in apatite, they have a fairly constant mean length of--16 gm .…”

Thermal history of the early Miocene Waitemata Basin and adjacent Waipapa Group, North Island, New Zealand

“…Apatite fission track (AFT) analysis in conjunction with vitrinite reflectance (VR) data can be used to evaluate maximum paleotemperatures affecting basin sediments (Green et al 1989). If basinal temperatures never exceeded 60°C, the apatites will essentially preserve the inherited ages and provide important information about the provenance of the sediment and the cooling histories of source terranes.…”

Apatite thermochronology in modern geology

“…The temperatures relating to the PAZ were defined by systematic investigation of the annealing of fission tracks across laboratory and geological timescales, monitored by changes in confined track-length distribution (Green & Durrani 1977;Gleadow & Duddy 1981;Laslett et al 1982Laslett et al , 1987Gleadow et al 1986a;Green et al 1986Green et al , 1989aDuddy et al 1988;Green 1988;Crowley et al 1991;Carlson et al 1999;Barbarand et al 2003). Quantification of the time-temperature conditions that control the annealing of fission tracks in apatite provide the means to interpret fission track-ages by linking the level of track-length shortening and density (age) reduction to sample thermal history (e.g.…”

“…Kamp & Green 1990;Bray et al 1992;Green et al 1995). Specific information gained from thermochronological data include estimates of maximum palaeotemperatures, calculations of palaeogeothermal gradients and palaeoheat flow, style (fast/slow) and time of cooling from maximum palaeotemperatures, characterization of mechanisms of heating and cooling, quantification of missing sections, stratigraphic dating, sediment provenance, and evaluation of hydrocarbon maturation (Gleadow et al 1983;Green et al 1989a;Kamp & Green 1990;Duane & Brown 1991;Mitchell 1997;Logan & Duddy 1998).…”