磷灰石U-Th/He法——一种低温热年代计

回顾了U Th/He测年方法的发展过程 ,简要介绍了该方法测年的原理、分析流程和长α -粒子停止距离校正。然后介绍了近年来在磷灰石He扩散性研究及数值模拟方面取得的一些成果和磷灰石U Th/He热年代计在研究古地貌、岩体构造抬升、盆地热历史演化方面的应用。最后分析了U Th/He测年方法的优、缺点 ,说明这一方法既存在广阔的应用前景 ,又有待于进一步完善、提高。     

磷灰石~4He/~3He热年代学——一种低温热年代学研究的新技术

磷灰石He的封闭温度(约70℃)是目前已知体系中最低的,4He在磷灰石中空间分布包含了样品经历的低温阶段(30~90℃)的热历史信息。磷灰石4He/3He热年代学是根据经典的扩散理论,并用质子照射磷灰石使其内部生成均匀分布的3He,然后应用一种数学方法来确定磷灰石中4He的空间分布,由此可以限制样品所经历的热历史。文中简单介绍了该方法的数学原理、模拟方法、应用以及现存的主要问题等,虽然这一方法还处于不断探索中,但是其对低温热历史的灵敏性使得这种方法有广阔的前景。     

磷灰石裂变径迹及(U-Th)/He分析技术在石油勘探中的应用

磷灰石裂变径迹及(U-Th)/He定年体系是近年来用于基础地质研究的一项新技术.该定年体系能有效恢复沉积盆地热历史,计算地层剥蚀量,推测盆地内热液活动的时间、温度以及时间与温度间的关系等信息,为油气勘探工作提供重要的科学依据.     

青藏高原东北部龙首山晚新生代剥露历史:来自磷灰石(U-Th)/He的证据

龙首山位于阿拉善地块南缘,也是青藏高原东北部最外围的山脉之一。揭示龙首山新生代构造变形与隆升过程对于理解青藏高原东北部的隆升与向外扩展及其动力学机制具有重要意义。文中利用磷灰石(U-Th)/He方法,对青藏高原东北部龙首山南、北两侧岩石的侵蚀与隆升过程开展研究。采集自龙首山南缘的11个磷灰石的(U-Th)/He年龄结果显示,在其南缘断层的控制下,龙首山约于14Ma BP发生了强烈隆升或剥蚀,导致上部岩石快速冷却。而在龙首山北缘采集的3个样品的年龄较老(220～240Ma),但年龄非常相近,表明其北侧活动较弱,龙首山整体表现为掀斜模式。龙首山中中新世由南向北的掀斜式抬升不仅揭示了青藏高原东北部挤压应变可能由南向北扩展,同时也限定了青藏高原在中中新世已向NE扩展至阿拉善地块南缘,使龙首山成为高原东北部现今构造与地貌的边界。     

米仓山-汉南隆起白垩纪以来的剥露作用：磷灰石(U-Th)/He年龄记录

对米仓山南江-南郑剖面上的13个花岗岩类样品进行了磷灰石(U-Th)/He测年和剥露速率计算,分析过程综合考虑了样品冷却速率、晶体大小等因素对磷灰石(U-Th)/He封闭温度的影响和地形起伏、岩体热传导、热对流及放射性元素生热等因素对地温场的影响.研究表明,米仓山南部沉积变形区自~50 Ma以来发生快速剥露 (剥露速率为~70 m/Ma),新生代以来的剥蚀量超过了3 km;中部光雾山杂岩体记录了~90 Ma时一次快速剥露事件(剥露速率>75 m/Ma);北部汉南隆起区~100 Ma以前以快速剥露为特点,平均剥露速率>40 m/Ma,此后转为缓慢剥露.整个米仓山-汉南隆起区在90~50 Ma基本处于缓慢剥露状态,平均剥露速率仅有10~25 m/Ma.     

MEASUREMENT PROCEDURE OF SINGLE-GRAIN APATITE(U-Th)/He DATING AND ITS VALIDATION BY DURANGO APATITE STANDARD

(U-Th)/He isotopic dating has been developed very quickly in recent years, due to the recognition that the thermal history of rock at low temperature can be effective revealed by such dating method. In particular, He closure temperature in apatite (40~80℃) is very low, so apatite (U-Th)/He ages can reflect the thermal history information of the low-temperature stage, and have a good application prospect in the field of low-temperature thermal chronology. However, because of many influence factors and complicated measurement procedures, the development of apatite He dating in China remains in its early stage. In this study, a measurement procedure was established at the (U-Th)/He dating laboratory of Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration. We measured the daughter isotopic helium by diode laser heating four batches of a total seventy-five grains of Durango apatite in an Alphachron helium mass spectrometry system. Then the apatite grains were dissolved to precisely measure the concentration of parent nuclides (U, Th)using the solution isotope dilution method through an automatic sampling ICP-MS (Agilent 7900). Results show that the Th/U values of Durango apatite grains were in the range of 17.23 to 23.60, while all the 75ages were in the range of 28.61 to 34.51Ma with an average of (31.71±1.55)Ma (1σ), which are consistent with the international calibrated ages.     

The effects of secular disequilibrium on (U-Th)/He systematics and dating of Quaternary volcanic zircon and apatite

The (U-Th)/He dating method applied to U-rich phases such as zircon and apatite has sufficient sensitivity and precision to be of potential use for dating relatively recent geologic events such as volcanic eruptions. However, in phases with crystallization ages less than ∼1 Ma, chemical fractionation within the ²³⁸U decay series may modify the He ingrowth rate, causing He ages computed from the secular equilibrium age equation to be incorrect. The resulting systematic error depends on the [²³⁰Th/²³⁸U] activity ratio of the dated phase when it is erupted, and on the eruption age. Zircons, which exclude Th relative to U, will likely have secular equilibrium He ‘ages’ that underestimate the eruption age by up to a few tens of %, decreasing with increasing eruption age. Apatites tend to accommodate U and Th with little fractionation, so apatite secular equilibrium He ages will be nearly concordant with eruption age. If minerals are erupted immediately after crystallization, the disequilibrium effect can be reasonably accounted for based on Th/U systematics. However, crystals are likely to reside for unknown but potentially long periods in a magma chamber, such that the degree of secular disequilibrium will be reduced prior to the onset of He accumulation. (U-Th)/He analyses of co-genetic phases that fractionate the U/Th ratio differently, like apatite and zircon, can be used to better constrain eruption age, as well as to provide insights into magma chamber residence time. We illustrate this approach with (U-Th)/He analyses of zircons and apatites of the Pleistocene-age Rangitawa Tephra, New Zealand.     

THE NORTHWARD GROWTH OF THE NORTHEASTERN TIBETAN PLATEAU IN LATE CENOZOIC: IMPLICATIONS FROM APATITE (U-Th)/He AGES OF LONGSHOU SHAN

Longshou Shan, located at the southern edge of the Alxa block, is one of the outermost peripheral mountains and the northeasternmost area of the northeastern Tibetan plateau. In recent years, through geochronology, thermochronology, magnetic stratigraphy and other methods, a large number of studies have been carried out on the initiation time of major faults, the exhumation history of mountains and the formation and evolution of basins in the northeastern Tibet Plateau, the question of whether and when the northeastward expansion of the northeastern Tibet Plateau has affected the southern part of the Alxa block has been raised. Therefore, the exhumation history of Longshou Shan provides significant insight on the uplift and expansion of the Tibetan plateau and their dynamic mechanism. The Longshou Shan, trending NWW, is the largest mountain range in the Hexi Corridor Basin, and its highest peak is more than 3 600m(with average elevation of 2800m), where the average elevation of Hexi Corridor is 1 600m, the relative height difference between them is nearly 2200m. This mountain is bounded by two parallel thrust faults: The North Longshou Shan Fault(NLSF)and the South Longshou Shan Fault(SLSF), both of them trends NWW and has high angle of inclination(45°~70°)but dips opposite to each other. The South Longshou Shan Fault, located in the northern margin of the Hexi Corridor Basin, is the most active fault on the northeastern plateau, and controls the uplift of Longshou Shan.Due to its lower closure temperature, the lower-temperature thermochronology method can more accurately constrain the cooling process of a geological body in the upper crust. In recent years, the low-temperature thermochronology method has been used more and more in the study of the erosion of orogenic belts, the evolution of sedimentary basins and tectonic geomorphology. In this study, the apatite (U-Th)/He(AHe) method is used to analyze the erosion and uplift of rocks on the south and north sides of Longshou Shan. 11 AHe samples collected from the south slope exhibit variable AHe ages between~8Ma and~200Ma, the age-elevation plot shows that before 13~17Ma, the erosion rate of the Longshou Shan is very low, and then rapid erosion occurs in the mountain range, which indicates that the strong uplift of Longshou Shan occurred at 13~17Ma BP, resulting in rapid cooling of the southern rocks. In contrast, 3 AHe ages obtained from the north slope are older and more concentrated ranging from 220Ma BP to 240Ma BP, indicating that the north slope can be seen as a paleo-isothermal surface and the activity of the north side is weak. The results of thermal history inverse modeling show that the South Longshou Shan Fault was in a tectonic quiet period until the cooling rate suddenly increased to 3.33℃/Ma at 14Ma BP, indicating that Longshou Shan had not experienced large tectonic events before~14Ma BP.
We believe that under the control of South Longshou Shan Fault, the mountain is characterized by a northward tilting uplift at Mid-Miocene. Our results on the initial deformation of the Longshou Shan, in combination with many published studies across the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau, suggest that the compression strain of the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau may expand from south to north, and the Tibetan plateau has expanded northeastward to the southern margin of the Alxa block as early as Mid-Miocene, making Longshou Shan the current structural and geomorphic boundary of the northeastern plateau.     

Quantifying the effect of recent relief changes on age–elevation relationships

The effect that recent relief changes may have on the distribution of rock ages with elevation is investigated for a range of thermochronometers. From the solution of the heat transport equation in a crustal block undergoing uplift and surface erosion, the temperature history of rock particles that are exhumed at the Earth’s surface today is computed. These T-t paths are then used to calculate apparent isotopic ages for the (U–Th)/He system in apatite, characterized by a low (≈70°C) closure temperature. The results show that recent relief changes strongly affect the distribution of ages with elevation (notably the slope of the age–elevation relationship). The calculations presented here predict that, in most situations, regions that have undergone a steady decrease in surface relief in the recent past should be characterized by an inverted age–elevation relationship, that is older ages should be found near valley bottoms and younger ages near summit tops. It is also shown how the wavelength of the topography, the geothermal gradient, the exhumation rate and the duration of the relief reduction event affect this result.     

氮氦比对地震的反映

聊古_1井位于聊考断裂带的北段。自1981年以来对该井水中的氮气和氦气每日进行定量观测。通过对聊古_1井的氮氦比在1981年11月9日宁晋M_s5.8级地震(Δ=150km)和1983年11月7日菏泽M_s5.9级地震(Δ=140km)震前变化的分析,发现N_2/He在这两次地震前2个月左右的时间均出现明显的高值异常,且均在异常转折、恢复的过程中发震。由此N_2/He在震前的变化可能作为一项短期前兆异常预报指标。 然而,从该井的氮气和氦气的单独观测曲线及一般的处理方法处理后的曲线看不出明显的异常。采用氮气和氦气两者的比值后,则可以看出异常,这是由于两者的比值可以消除某些干扰因素的影响,例如:温度、湿度、气压及取样化验等。     

Stalagmite from the Austrian Alps reveals Dansgaard-Oeschger events during isotope stage 3:: Implications for the absolute chronology of Greenland ice cores

A mass-spectrometric uranium-series dated stalagmite from the Central Alps of Austria provides unprecedented new insights into high-altitude climate change during the peak of isotope stage 3. The stalagmite formed continuously between 57 and 46 kyr before present. A series of ‘Hendy tests’ demonstrates that the outer parts of the sample show a progressive increase of both stable C and O isotope values. No such covariant increase was detected within the axial zone. This in conjunction with other observations suggests that the continuous stable oxygen isotope profile obtained from the axial zone of the stalagmite largely reflects the unaltered isotopic composition of the cave drip water. The δ¹⁸O record shows events of high δ¹⁸O values that correlate remarkably with Interstadials 15 (a and b), 14 and 12 identified in the Greenland ice cores. Interstadial 15b started rapidly at 55.6 kyr and lasted ∼300 yr only, Interstadial 15a peaked 54.9 kyr ago and was even of shorter duration (∼100 yr), and Interstadial 14 commenced 54.2 kyr ago and lasted ∼3000 yr. This stalagmite thus represents one of the first terrestrial archives outside the high latitudes which record precisely dated Dansgaard-Oeschger (D/O) events during isotope stage 3. Provided that rapid D/O warmings occurred synchronously in Greenland and the European Alps, the new data provide an independent tool to improve the GRIP and GISP2 chronologies.     

Multi‐method (14C, 36Cl, 234U/230Th) age bracketing of the Tschirgant rock avalanche (Eastern Alps): implications for absolute dating of catastrophic mass‐wasting

Correct and precise age determination of prehistorical catastrophic rock‐slope failures prerequisites any hypotheses relating this type of mass wasting to past climatic regimes or palaeo‐seismic records. Despite good exposure, easy accessibility and a long tradition of absolute dating, the age of the 230 million m³ carbonate‐lithic Tschirgant rock avalanche event of the Eastern Alps (Austria) still is relatively poorly constrained. We herein review the age of mass‐wasting based on a total of 17 absolute ages produced with three different methods (¹⁴C, ³⁶Cl, ²³⁴U/²³⁰Th). Chlorine‐36 (³⁶Cl) cosmogenic surface exposure dating of five boulders of the rock avalanche deposit indicates a mean event age of 3.06 ± 0.62 ka. Uranium‐234/thorium‐230 (²³⁴U/²³⁰Th) dating of soda‐straw stalactites formed in microcaves beneath boulders indicate mean precipitation ages of three individual soda straws at 3.20 ± 0.26 ka, 3.04 ± 0.10 ka and 2.81 ± 0.15 ka; notwithstanding potential internal errors, these ages provide an ‘older‐than’ (ante quam) proxy for mass‐wasting. Based on radiocarbon ages (nine sites) only, it was previously suggested that the present rock avalanche deposit represents two successive failures (3.75 ± 0.19 ka bp , 3.15 ± 0.19 ka bp ). There is, however, no evidence for two events neither in surface outcrops nor in LiDAR derived imagery and drill logs. The temporal distribution of all absolute ages (¹⁴C, ³⁶Cl, ²³⁴U/²³⁰Th) also does not necessarily indicate two successive events but suggest that a single catastrophic mass‐wasting took place between 3.4 and 2.4 ka bp . Taking into account the maximum age boundary given by reinterpreted radiocarbon datings and the minimum U/Th‐ages of calcite precipitations within the rock avalanche deposits, a most probable event age of 3.01 ± 0.10 ka bp can be proposed. Our results underscore the difficulty to accurately date catastrophic rock slope failures, but also the potential to increase the accuracy of age determination by combining methods. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermochronological data from Sudan in the frame of the denudational history of the Nubian Red Sea margin

Low‐temperature thermochronology provides information on the timing of rifting and denudation of passive margins, and the Red Sea with its well‐exposed, young rift margins is a suitable setting for its application. Here we present new apatite fission‐track (AFT) data from Sudan northern hinterland and Red Sea coastal areas. From the former region we obtained ages between 270 ± 2 Ma ad 253 ± 53 Ma, and from the coastal belt between 83 ± 8 Ma and 39 ± 7 Ma. These data prompted a review and comparison with low‐temperature thermochronological data from the whole Nubian Red Sea Margin, and a discussion on their implication in assessing the margin evolutionary style. AFT data are available for Egypt and Eritrea as well as apatite (U‐Th)/He (AHe) ages for two transects transversal to the margin in Eritrea. Both in Egypt and Eritrea AFT data record a cooling event at about 20–25 Ma (Early Miocene) and an earlier, more local, cooling event in Egypt at about 34 Ma (Early Oligocene). The thermal modeling of the Sudan samples provides an indication of a rapid cooling in Miocene times, but does not support nor rules out an Early Oligocene cooling phase. The re‐assessment of new and existing thermochronological data within the known geological framework of the Nubian and conjugate Arabian margins favours the hypothesis that early rifting stages were affecting the whole Gulf of Suez–Red Sea–Gulf of Aden system since the Oligocene. These precocious, more attenuated, phases were followed by major extension in Miocene times. As to the mode of margin evolution, AFT age patterns both in Egypt and Eritrea are incompatible with a downwarp model. The distribution of AHe ages across the Eritrean coastal plain suggests that there the escarpment was evolving predominantly by plateau degradation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A record of changing redox conditions in the northern Peru Basin during the Late Quaternary deduced from Mn/Fe and growth rate variations in two diagenetic manganese nodules

Two diagenetic manganese nodules from the Peru Basin were investigated by thermal ionization mass spectrometry and high resolution alpha spectrometry for uranium and thorium. The TIMS concentrations for nodule 62KD (63KG) vary as follows: 0.12–1.01 ppb (0.06–0.59) ²³⁰Th, 0.51–1.98 ppm (0.43–1.40) ²³²Th, 0.13–0.80 ppb (0.09–0.49) ²³⁴U, and 1.95–13.47 ppm (1.66–8.24) ²³⁸U. Both nodules have average growth rates of 110 mm per million years. However, from the variations of excess ²³⁰Th with depth we estimate partial accumulation rates which range from 50 to 400 mm per million years. The δ²³⁴U dating method cannot be applied due to remobilization of U from the sediment and subsequent incorporation into the nodules' crystal lattice, reflected by decay corrected δ²³⁴U values far above the ocean water value. Sections of fast nodule growth are related to those layers having high Mn/Fe ratios (up to 200) and higher densities. As a possible explanation we develop a scenario that describes similar glacial/interglacial trends in both nodules as a record of regional changes of sediment and/or deep water chemistry.