40Ar/39Ar dating of the SP and Bar Ten lava flows AZ, USA: Laying the foundation for the SPICE cosmogenic nuclide production-rate calibration project

Abstract

Precise 40Ar/39Ar age determinations made on basalt groundmass collected from the SP and upper and lower Bar Ten lava flows in the San Francisco and Uinkaret volcanic fields of Arizona, USA, yield ages of 72 ± 4, 97 ± 10, and 123 ± 12 ka (2σ; relative to Renne et al., 2010, 2011, full external precision), respectively. Previous ages of the SP lava flow include a K–Ar age of 70 ± 8 ka and OSL ages of 5.5–6 ka. 40Ar/39Ar age constraints, relative to the optimization model of Renne et al. (2010, 2011), of 81 ± 50 and 118 ± 64 ka (2σ; full external precision) were previously reported for the upper and lower Bar Ten lava flows, respectively. The new 40Ar/39Ar ages are within uncertainty of previous age constraints, and are more robust, accurate, and precise. Preliminary cosmogenic 3He and 21Ne production rates from the Bar Ten flows reported by Fenton et al. (2009) are updated here, to account for the improved quality of the 40Ar/39Ar data. The new 40Ar/39Ar age for the SP flow yields cosmogenic 3He and 21Ne production rates for pyroxene (119 ± 8 and 26.8 ± 1.9 at/g/yr; error-weighted mean, 2σ uncertainty; Dunai (2000) scaling method) that are consistent with production rate values reported throughout the literature. The 40Ar/39Ar and cosmogenic 3He and 21Ne data support field observations indicating the SP flow has undergone negligible erosion. The SP flow contains co-existing phenocrysts of olivine and pyroxene, as well as xenocrysts of quartz in a fine-grained groundmass facilitating cross-calibration of cosmogenic production rates and production-rate (3He, 10Be, 14C, 21Ne, 26Al, and 36Cl). Thus, we propose the SP flow is an excellent location for a cosmogenic nuclide production-rate calibration site (SPICE: the SP Flow Production-Rate Inter-Calibration Site for Cosmogenic-Nuclide Evaluations).