Age calibration of the Fish Canyon sanidine 40Ar/ 39Ar dating standard using primary K–Ar standards

Abstract

The 40Ar/ 39Ar dating technique requires the use of neutron fluence monitors (standards). Precise calibrations of these standards are crucial to decrease the uncertainties associated with 40Ar/ 39Ar dates. Optimal calibration of 40Ar/ 39Ar standards should be based on K/Ar standards having independent isotope dilution measurements of 40K and 40Ar*, based on independent isotope tracers (spikes) because this offers the possibility to eliminate random interlaboratory errors. In this study, we calibrate the widely used Fish Canyon sanidine (FCs) standard based on four primary K/Ar standards (GA-1550, Hb3gr, NL-25, and GHC-305) on which K and Ar* concentrations have been determined in different labs with independently calibrated tracers. We obtained a mean age of 28.03 ± 0.08 Ma (1 σ; neglecting uncertainties of the 40K decay constants) for FCs, based on the decay constant recommended by Steiger and Jäger [Steiger R.H., Jäger. E. 1977. Subcommission on geochronology: convention of the use of decay constants in geo- and cosmochronology. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 36, 359–362.]. This age corresponds to a mean 40Ar*/ 40K value of (1.6407 ± 0.0047) × 10 −3. We also discuss several criteria that prevent the use of previous calibrations of FCs based on other primary standards (LP-6, SB-3 and MMhb-1). The age of FCs obtained in this study is based on the 40K decay constants of Steiger and Jäger (1977) but we anticipate the imminent need for revision of the value and precision of the 40K decay constants (representing the main source of uncertainties in 40Ar/ 39Ar dating). The 40Ar*/ 40K result of FCs obtained in this study allows therefore a rapid calibration of the age of FCs with uncertainties at the 0.29% level but perhaps more importantly this value is independent of any particular value of the 40K decay constants and may be used in the future in conjunction with revised decay constants.