Welcome to the fascinating world of fission tracks!
Fission tracks? What are they?
Why are they important?
- Fission tracks are tiny (l=10-20 μm, Ø=6-10 nm) damage features in solid media. They form by the spontaneous fission of heavy atoms' nuclei (predominantly 238U)
Why are they important?
- The amount (or density) of fission tracks is proportional to the age and the U-content of the phase, meaning that if one can determine the number of tracks and measure the U-content, a fission-track age can be calculated
- Fission tracks anneal and eventually disappear at higher temperatures, which provides us information about the thermal history of the phase of interest
- Most commonly dated phases include: zircon, apatite, titanite, obsidian (volcanic glass)
- Time and rate of exhumation (e.g. orogens, metamorphic core complexes)
- Inevitable age data for sedimentary provenance analysis
- Thermal history of sedimentary basins (input data for thermal modelling)
- Hydrocarbon potential of sedimentary basins
- Extent of the thermal "halo" around ore deposits
- And a lot more...