This study investigates Rb–Sr system behavior in hydrothermally altered muscovite using in-situ LA-ICP-MS/MS (Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Tandem Mass Spectrometry) analyses from the Athabasca Basin. Unaltered muscovite records Paleoproterozoic crystallization ages, whereas muscovite altered to illite and sudoite yields a consistent age of ~1640 Ma, corresponding to alteration halos related to unconformity-type uranium deposits. These results highlight the potential of Rb–Sr dating to constrain hydrothermal processes and fluid–rock interactions.

Geological processes like erosion, burial, and faulting can influence or perturb heat conditions in the Earth's crust through time, which can complicate our interpretation of the geological significance of rock cooling histories determined from thermochronology. This 1D modeling study quantifies and illustrates the expected relationships between various lithosphere-scale geological processes and resulting thermal histories and thermochronometer ages.

(U-Th)/He chronology requires measuring the absolute amount of radiogenic He in a sample. While high-quality commercial He lines are available, these machines are not always ideal for researchers interested in developing new or emerging techniques like laser ablation (U-Th)/He chronology. This manuscript describes the design, construction, automation, and calibration of a new He analysis line in the University of Colorado Thermochronology Research and Instrumentation Lab (CU TRaIL) facility that is optimized for measuring small amounts of He.

The ability to reconstruct thermal histories from thermochronometric data is determined by kinetic parameters. The Great Unconformity represents an enormous amount of time lost from the sedimentary record and has been explored with zircon (U–Th)/He ages. Here we explore the uncertainty associated with the radiation damage model and show how this limits our ability to resolve the origin of the Great Unconformity.

We present a new strategy for extracting information on the thermal history of sedimentary samples that lost part of their radiogenic helium during sediment burial. It uses combined U/Pb and (U-Th)/He dating of zircon to find grains that formed just before deposition and use them to model the basin thermal history. The model also estimates the time when the source rock of each grain cooled. We discuss the advantages and limitations of our approach and its application to other methods.

We present a high-sensitivity laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) method for in-situ U–Pb dating of garnet with under 1 ng g⁻¹ U. Using ion counters, geologically meaningful ages are obtained from garnets with up to three orders of magnitude less uranium than standard in-situ U–Pb dating. This expands garnet petrochronology to low-U metamorphic rocks.

To accurately understand past climate change, exact chronologies are fundamental. We dated multiple stalagmites from the Yucatán Peninsula covering the last 2700 years. Because these cave deposits contain high and variable amounts of contaminating elements that distort age models, we developed a multi-method approach to correct the timelines. Our corrected records now provide a reliable foundation for future studies to track ancient droughts, floods, and their links to Maya cultural evolution.

The development of ultraviolet lasers combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers has allowed dating to be carried out on zircon with useful precision in minutes. This has led to a large increase in the amount of available geochronology but it involves corrections for multiple sources of measurement bias, which remain poorly understood. This work investigates the processes responsible for biases and proposes practical and theoretical approaches to improve accuracy.

Collision of cosmic rays with the atmosphere produces rare atoms, including beryllium-10, which falls out in precipitation and binds to soils. Measurements on glacial deposits from the last ice age in Colorado, USA show that millions of beryllium-10 atoms fall on each square centimeter of land each year. The rate of delivery increases with elevation and precipitation, which allowed us to make maps of the beryllium-10 flux for an entire watershed that will be used to measure erosion rates.

We present a simple, robust method for triple dating (U–Pb, fission track, and in-situ (U–Th)/He) of apatite using Teflon mounts. The approach increases analytical throughput and ensures data quality via a decision matrix. Validation with Durango apatite and application to the Odenwald demonstrates its reliability and the ability to resolve complex thermal histories.

Luminescence dating of feldspar minerals is widely applied in geology and archaeology. However, the luminescence of feldspar is prone to signal loss termed anomalous fading, which must be accounted for to avoid age underestimation. Here, we critically review the different mathematical approaches for anomalous fading correction, and present new, computationally efficient, analytical expressions for the two most ubiquitous fading correction schemes.