Composition and chemical microprobe dating of U-Th-bearing minerals. Part I. Monazites from the Urals and Siberia

Abstract

To develop chemical microprobe timing of U-Th-bearing minerals, monazite grains from several localities in the Ural and Siberia have been dated using upgraded measurement techniques and age calculation based on original software. The samples were taken from pegmatites of the Ilmeny Mountains and the Ilmeny-Vishnevy Mountains Complex in the South Urals; pegmatites from the Adui granitic pluton and its framework in the Central Urals; gneisses and granulites of the Taratash Complex in the South Urals; and felsic gneisses from the Transangara region of the Yenisei Ridge. Scrutiny of the composition, heterogeneity, and chemical substitution of U and Th ions is a necessary stage of chemical dating aimed at estimating the degree of closeness of the U-Th-Pb system and unbiased screening of analytical data. The results obtained have been compared with the known isotopic ages of the studied minerals; the compared data are satisfactorily consistent.