Improved dissolution and chemical separation methods for Lu‐Hf garnet chronometry

Abstract

Garnet‐based Lu‐Hf geochronology using conventional (HF‐HNO3) dissolution methods may be compromised by full or partial digestion of Hf‐rich zircon inclusions. This study integrates two complimentary methods to substantially reduce zircon digestion while assuring complete digestion of garnet and sample‐spike equilibration. Handpicked garnet fractions are heat treated to >1000°C in an evacuated silica glass ampoule to anneal zircon inclusions and then dissolved with 12 M HCl at 210°C and cold 28 M HF. Analyses of heat‐treated garnet (and their high‐temperature breakdown products orthopyroxene‐spinel‐quartz) from Gore Mountain, New York, demonstrate the method is capable of complete dissolution of garnet and routinely achieving sample‐spike equilibration. Independent analyses of annealed and unannealed zircons dissolved by HCl – cold HF demonstrate the benefit of heat treatment prior to dissolution. Analyses of zircon‐rich garnets from peletic paragneisses of Labrador, Canada, show the potential of this method by returning Lu‐Hf ratios commensurate with the degree of heat treatment. Finally, a complementary chemical separation method for Lu and Hf is presented that supports analysis of garnet by MC‐ICP‐MS.