This project investigates the causes of limitations to Pb/U dating of minerals by LA-ICP-MS, with the aim of enhancing laboratory practices and instrumentation parameters to lower systematic errors and improve precision. Zircon is the primary mineral investigated, however ongoing investigations for apatite, uraninite, and monazite are currently underway.
This year the main focus was on:
- Development of new reference materials for monazite U-Pb and rutile dating.
- Investigation into the potential matrix effects during U-Pb dating of monazite and xenotime, and whether mineral specific reference materials are required for each.
- Measurements of titanite reference materials for U-Pb, which have demonstrated that the current method is accurate relative to the precision quoted.
In addition, a paper was published in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry on matrix effects in apatite U-Pb dating by LA-ICP-MS, which also characterised two new reference materials for U-Pb dating.