Dating Micrometre‐Thin Rims Using a LA‐ICP‐MS Depth Profiling Technique on Zircon from an Archaean Metasediment: Comparison with the SIMS Depth Profiling Method

Abstract

Laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) was examined as a tool for measuring isotopic variation as a function of ablation depth in unpolished zircon from an Archaean metasediment specimen. This technique was able to identify micrometre‐thin (> 3 μm) isotopically distinct mineral domains characterised by ca. 100 Myr younger 207Pb/206Pb ages associated with 2s age uncertainties as low ~ 0.2%, as well as elevated U content relative to grain interiors (up to an order of magnitude). Our calculated drilling rate suggests that each laser pulse excavated depths of ~ 0.06 μm. Ages resolved through the LA‐ICP‐MS methods overlap the 2s uncertainties of 207Pb/206Pb ages measured using SIMS depth profiling on the same zircon population. The rims were further evinced by the detection of relative enrichment (> 3 orders of magnitude) in REE in the outermost micrometres of the same zircon, measured using a different and independent LA‐ICP‐MS depth profiling technique. We propose a LA‐ICP‐MS U–Pb technique capable of quickly identifying and quantifying rims, which are indication of late, yet geologically significant, fluid events that are otherwise undefined.