Isotope Geology

Part I: Radiometric Geochronology

Pieter Vermeesch
London Geochronology Centre
University College London

p.vermeesch@ucl.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 3108 6369
KLB 116

doi:10.31223/osf.io/sj4ft

Contents
1 Introduction
Bibliography
2 Basic Notions
2.1 Isotopes and radioactivity
2.2 Radioactivity
2.3 The age equation
2.4 Decay series
3 Analytical techniques
3.1 Mass spectrometry
3.2 Isotope dilution
3.3 Sample-standard bracketing
4 Simple parent-daughter pairs
4.1 ¹⁴C dating
4.2 The Rb-Sr method
4.3 Isochrons
4.4 The Sm-Nd method
5 The U-Pb system
5.1 The U-(Th-)Pb method
5.2 The Pb-Pb method
5.3 Concordia
5.4 Detrital geochronology
6 The K-Ar system
6.1 K-Ar dating
6.2 ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating
6.3 Applications
7 Thermochronology
7.1 The U-Th-He method
7.2 Fission tracks
8 Cosmogenic Nuclides
8.1 Stable nuclides
8.2 Radionuclides
8.3 The ‘Banana Plot’
8.4 Scaling models
9 U-series dating
9.1 The ²³⁴U-²³⁸U method
9.2 The ²³⁰Th method
9.3 The ²³⁰Th-²³⁸U method
10 Error propagation
10.1 Some basic definitions
10.2 Examples
10.3 Accuracy vs. precision
11 Exercises
12 Programming practicals
12.1 Introduction to R
12.2 Introduction to Matlab
12.3 U-Th-Pb data reduction
12.4 ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data reduction
12.5 Error propagation
12.6 Fission tracks