Articles | Volume 7, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-7-45-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-7-45-2025
Research article
 | 
25 Feb 2025
Research article |  | 25 Feb 2025

The need for fission-track data transparency and sharing

Murat T. Tamer, Ling Chung, Richard A. Ketcham, and Andrew J. W. Gleadow

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Cited articles

Ansberque, C., Chew, D. M., and Drost, K.: Apatite fission-track dating by LA-Q-ICP-MS imaging, Chem. Geol., 560, 119977, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119977, 2021. 
Aslanian, C., Jonckheere, R., Wauschkuhn, B., and Ratschbacher, L.: Short communication: Experimental factors affecting fission-track counts in apatite, Geochronology, 4, 109–119, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-4-109-2022, 2022. 
Balestrieri, M. L., Bigazzi, G., and Ghezzo, C.: The transantarctic mountains: a natural laboratory for apatite fission-track analysis. Results from Italian Antarctic expeditions, Radiat. Meas., 31, 621–626, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1350-4487(99)00154-7, 1991. 
Barbarand, J., Hurford, T., and Carter, A.: Compositional and structural control of fission-track annealing in apatite, Chem. Geol., 198(1-2), 107-137, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0009-2541(02)00424-2, 2003. 
Barnes, J. B., Ehlers, T. A., Insel, N., McQuarrie, N., and Poulsen, C. J.: Linking orography, climate, and exhumation across the central Andes, Geology, 40, 1135–1138, https://doi.org/10.1130/G33229.1, 2012. 
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Short summary
We present the first new image-based study to reveal how choices made by different analysts affect the results obtained by fission-track analysis. Participants analyzed an identical image dataset with varying grain quality. Experienced analysts tend to select lower numbers of unsuitable grains and conduct lower numbers of invalid length measurements. Fission-track studies need image data repositories, teaching modules, guidelines, an open science culture, and new approaches for calibration.

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