SHRIMP (Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe) is an instrument that for decades has used the radioactive decay of uranium into lead to measure geologic time. The accuracy and precision of this instrument has not been seriously reviewed in almost 20 years. This paper compares several dozen SHRIMP ages in our database with more accurate and precise methods to assess SHRIMP accuracy and precision. Analytical and geological complications are addressed to try to improve the method.

In situ ¹⁴C’s short half-life (5.7 kyr) is unique among cosmogenic nuclides, making it sensitive to complex exposure and burial histories since 25 ka. Current extraction methods focus on quartz, but the ability to extract it from other minerals would expand applications. We developed MATLAB® scripts to calculate in situ ¹⁴C production rates from a broad range of mineral compositions. Results confirm O, Si, Al, and Mg as key targets but also find significant production from Na for the first time.

Thermochronometric data can provide unique insights into the patterns of rock exhumation and the driving mechanisms of landscape evolution. Several well-established thermal models allow for a detailed exploration of how cooling rates evolved in a limited area or along a transect, but more regional analyses have been challenging. We present age2exhume, a thermal model that can be used to rapidly provide a synoptic overview of exhumation rates from large regional thermochronologic datasets.

Chemical weathering alters the chemical composition of mineral grains, and it follows that luminescence dating signals may also be progressively modified. We artificially weathered feldspar samples under different chemical conditions to understand the effect of feldspar partial dissolution on their luminescence properties. Only minor changes were observed on luminescence dating properties, implying that chemical alteration of feldspar surfaces may not affect luminescence dating signals.

Sediment cores from the volcanic lake Holzmaar provide a very precise chronology based on tree-ring-like annual laminations or varves. We statistically combine this varve chronology with radiometric dating and tested three different methods to upgrade the age–depth model. However, only one of the three methods tested improved the dating accuracy considerably. With this work, an overview of different age integration methods is discussed and made available for increased future demands.

There is currently no standardized method of performing uncertainty propagation in the (U–Th) / He system, causing data interpretation difficulties. We present two methods of uncertainty propagation and describe free, open-source software (HeCalc) to apply them. Compilation of real data using only analytical uncertainty as well as 2 % and 5 % uncertainties in FT yields respective median relative date uncertainties of 2.9 %, 3.3 %, and 5.0 % for apatites and 1.7 %, 3.3 %, and 5.0 % for zircons.

We developed code to automatically and semi-automatically measure dimensions of detrital mineral grains in reflected-light images saved at laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry facilities that use Chromium targeting software. Our code uses trained deep learning models to segment grain images with greater accuracy than is achievable using other segmentation techniques. We implement our code in Jupyter notebooks which can also be run online via Google Colab.

Acid leaching is commonly used to remove damaged portions of zircon crystals prior to U–Pb dating. However, a basic understanding of the microstructural processes that occur during leaching is lacking. We present the first 3D view of zircon dissolution based on X-ray computed tomography data acquired before and after acid leaching. These data are paired with images of etched grain surfaces and Raman spectral data. We also reveal exciting opportunities for imaging radiation damage zoning in 3D.

About 2 million years ago, rich gold deposits formed at Martabe, on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Fluids may have moved as the result of fault dilation caused by changes in stress orientation during the earthquake cycle, so to work out exactly when and how long between cycles, we dated a potassium-bearing mineral, alunite, using argon geochronology in association with diffusion experiments during temperature-controlled furnace step-heating, showing two episodes 250 thousand years apart.

When using the uranium–lead (U–Pb) radiometric dating method on very young materials (e.g. Quaternary age zircon and carbonate minerals), it is important to accurately account for the production and decay of intermediate daughter isotopes in the uranium-series decay chain. DQPB is open-source software that allows users to easily perform such calculations for a variety of sample types and produce publication-ready graphical outputs of the resulting age information.

(U–Th) / He dating relies on proper characterization of apatite crystal dimensions so that eU concentrations and dates can be calculated accurately and precisely, but there is systematic error and uncertainty in geometric measurements. By comparing 2D microscopy to true 3D measurements, we present a simple solution to correcting the error and quantifying the geometric uncertainty in eU and dates. Including this geometric correction and uncertainty matters for data evaluation and interpretation.

Accurately dating ocean cores is challenging because the radiocarbon age of water masses varies substantially. We identify ash fragments from eruptions more than 4000 km from their source and use these time markers to develop a new age–depth model for an ocean core in Placentia Bay, North Atlantic. Our results show that the radiocarbon age of waters masses in the bay varied considerably during the last 10 000 years and highlight the potential of using ultra-distal ash deposits in this region.

We present our model ChronoLorica. We coupled the original Lorica model, which simulates soil and landscape evolution, with a geochronological module that traces cosmogenic nuclide inventories and particle ages through simulations. These properties are often measured in the field to determine rates of landscape change. The coupling enables calibration of the model and the study of how soil, landscapes and geochronometers change under complex boundary conditions such as intensive land management.

We propose using the Wasserstein-2 distance (W₂) as an alternative to the widely used Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) statistic for analysing distributional data in geochronology. W₂ measures the horizontal distance between observations, while KS measures vertical differences in cumulative distributions. Using case studies, we find that W₂ is preferable in scenarios where the absolute age differences in observations provide important geological information. W₂ has been added to the R package IsoplotR.

The concept of open data has become the modern science meme. Funding bodies and publishers support open data. However, the open data mandate frequently encounters technical obstacles, such as a lack of a suitable data format for data sharing and long-term data preservation. Such issues are often community-specific and demand community-tailored solutions. We propose a new human-readable data format for data exchange and long-term preservation of luminescence data called XLUM.

We report aspartic and glutamic acid racemization analyses on Neogloboquadrina pachyderma and Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi from the Arctic Ocean (AO). The rates of racemization in the species are compared. Calibrating the rate of racemization in C. wuellerstorfi for the past 400 ka allows the estimation of sample ages from the central AO. Estimated ages are older than existing age assignments (as previously observed for N. pachyderma), confirming that differences are not due to taxonomic effects.