Abstract
A new method to date uranium-bearing minerals exclusively by means of a mass spectrometric determination of Xe and/or Kr isotopic ratios has been developed and experimentally tested. It is based on the compositional differences between Xe produced by spontaneous fission of 238U in nature and Xe from 235U fission induced by thermal neutrons in a nuclear reactor. Xe is extracted in 5–10 release fractions at successively higher temperatures. This relates the radiogenic Xe contained in various structural elements of different retention characteristics to the respective U concentrations and allows to account for natural Xe losses, which are quite common. A monazite monitor mineral of known age is included in each irradiation and its Xe isotopes are measured in the same way. The samples analyzed include uranium oxides, REE phosphates, tantalum niobates, zircon and others. The results and comparisons with reported ages obtained by other means demonstrate the applicability of the new dating method for minerals with U contents up to a few percent. In age spectra the low-temperature release fractions of some samples indicate radiogenic Xe losses, while at high temperatures age plateaux can be obtained.
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