Interpreting cooling dates and histories from laser ablation in situ (U–Th–Sm)&thinsp;∕&thinsp;He thermochronometry: a modelling perspective

Glotzbach, Christoph; Ehlers, Todd A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-6-697-2024

Articles | Volume 6, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-6-697-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-6-697-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 6, issue 4

Research article

|

20 Dec 2024

Research article |

| 20 Dec 2024

Interpreting cooling dates and histories from laser ablation in situ (U–Th–Sm) ∕ He thermochronometry: a modelling perspective

Christoph Glotzbach and Todd A. Ehlers

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-6-697-2024-supplement

Model code and software

Interpreting cooling dates and histories from laser ablation in-situ (U-Th-Sm)/He thermochronometry Christoph Glotzbach https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13898183

Short summary

The (U–Th–Sm) / He dating method helps understand the cooling history of rocks. Synthetic modelling experiments were conducted to explore factors affecting in situ vs. whole-grain (U–Th) / He dates. In situ dates are often 30 % older than whole-grain dates, whereas very rapid cooling makes helium loss negligible, resulting in similar whole-grain and in situ dates. In addition, in situ data can reveal cooling histories even from a single grain by measuring helium distributions.