Adventures of an Argon geochronologist: Why do we date rocks?

Talk Dr Sarah Sherlock, Senior Research Fellow, The Open University

Abstract:
My current preoccupation is to find new ways in which we can increase the spatial resolution of Ar/Ar laserprobe dating to extract new information from rocks and minerals. Through this I, and colleagues, are investigating the diffusion mechanisms of argon in feldspars, understanding the behaviour of argon during friction melting, the uptake of excess argon in mudrocks and their attendant strain-fringes, the timing of fluid-rock interaction through dating authigenic alkali feldspars, dating meteorite impact craters, the behaviour of argon in volcanic glasses, and most recently in basalts. Recent work in Turkey provides examples of the use of Ar39/Ar40 dating techniques and how they can be used in the geological interpretation of regional igneous and tectonic provinces.