Detrital zircon geochronology: enhancing the quality of sedimentary source information through improved methodology and combined U–Pb and fission‐track techniques

Abstract

Zircon is the most widely used mineral in detrital dating studies because it is common to multiple rock types, is chemically and physically resistant, and can endure successive cycles of burial, metamorphism and erosion. Zircon also has the advantage that single grains may be dated by either the fission‐track (FT) or U–Pb method, which, because of their contrasting thermal sensitivities (total resetting occurs at temperatures > 320 °C for FT and > 700–900 °C for U–Pb), can provide unique information about both the age structure and the thermal evolution of a sediment source. However, single method‐based bias and difficulties associated with interpreting measured ages can influence both the quality and the level of useful provenance information. For example, the zircon FT system is sensitive to metamorphic overprinting and hence measured ages alone cannot be interpreted as unambiguously dating formation age of the source rock. In contrast, U–Pb zircon data have high resistance (700–900 °C) to thermal overprinting and therefore recorded formation ages may not relate to an immediate source but may instead reflect a polycyclical history. The focus of this paper is to examine, from a practical standpoint, the provenance potential of detrital zircon fission track data and to investigate the method’s complementary role as an aide to the interpretation of high‐temperature detrital U–Pb zircon data by combining U–Pb and FT methods in a single study.

Fluvial–Eolian Interactions In Sediment Routing and Sedimentary Signal Buffering: An Example From the Indus Basin and Thar Desert

“…compose the Thar Desert eolian samples at the downwind end of the desert. For the calculations that follow, we follow traditional detritalzircon provenance techniques in assuming that the zircon populations are representative of the bulk siliciclastic content (e.g., Carter and Bristow 2001).…”

Fundamentals of detrital zircon fission-track analysis for provenance and exhumation studies with examples from the European Alps

“…One of the real promises of the FTGA technique is its ability to address the long-term exhumation of orogenic belts, because sediments in a stratigraphic sequence capture a representative picture of source exhumation through time (Cerveny et al, 1988;Brandon and Fundamentals of detrital zircon fission-track analysis Vance, 1992;Garver and Brandon, 1994b;Lonergan and Johnson, 1998;Carter and Moss, 1999;Garver et al, 1999;Carter and Bristow, 2000;Spiegel et al, 2000;Bernet et al, 2001). At this point, we can be reasonable assured that the basin strata captures representative samples of the orogenic belt through time, and there is a reasonably quantitative transfer of material.…”

Fission track and U–Pb in situ dating applied to detrital zircon from the Vale do Rio do Peixe Formation, Bauru Group, Brazil

“…Detrital zircon data derived from either the FTM or UeThePb methods are thus inherently ambiguous, and their separate use may result in a biased or misleading provenance interpretation. By adopting a dual zircon dating approach, combining both FT and UeThePb analyses on the same samples and/or grains, such limitations can be overcome, and the optimum amount of provenance information that relates to the age structure and thermal evolution of the immediate source terranes can be extracted (Carter and Bristow, 2000).…”