Fuerteventura – assessment of a calibration site for cosmogenic 3He exposure dating with the 40Ar/39Ar incremental heating method Πεμ Οκτ 10, 2013 01:52 από Geochronology Publication date: Available online 9 October 2013 Source:Quaternary Geochronology Author(s): B. Schneider , K.F. Kuiper , K. Mai , J.P.T. Foeken , F.M. Stuart , J.R. Wijbrans In situ Terrestrial Cosmogenic Nuclides (hereafter TCNs) are increasingly important for absolutely dating terrestrial events and processes. This study aimed at improving our knowledge of the production rate of Terrestrial Cosmogenic 3He formed in situ in rock surfaces at low latitude and sea level as well as re-evaluation of the Canary Islands as a calibration site for TCNs. For this purpose, we sampled basaltic lava flows from some of the youngest and yet undated volcanic sites and used the 40Ar/39Ar incremental heating method on groundmass samples and in situ cosmogenic 3He on olivine and clino-pyroxene phenocrysts. 40Ar/39Ar analysis was done on a Hiden HAL Series 1000 triple filter quadrupole mass spectrometer with extraction furnace. Incremental heating data shows ages in the Late Pleistocene from 52.7 ± 21.6 ka to 398.6 ± 27.6 ka. We measured cosmogenic 3He concentrations in olivine and clinopyroxene phenocrysts from flow top samples on a MAP 215-50 sector mass spectrometer with a crushing device and a diode laser extraction system. Exposure age calculations yielded ages in the range 38.9 ± 4.0 ka to 62.3 ± 6.7 ka for the youngest lava flow and the data series is in broad agreement with the argon data up to 250 ka and reveals a more continuous time line of volcanism during the late Pleistocene on the island. However, the dataset was not sufficient for calculation of production rates for in situ Terrestrial Cosmogenic 3He as many samples showed signs of erosion. Calculated erosion rates range from none to as high as 7.3 mm/kyr assuming a rock density of 2.9 g/cm2. This finding puts a constraint on the use of Fuerteventura as a calibration site for exposure histories older than 50 to 100 ka. A comparison with cosmogenic 36Cl data supports these findings and indicates substantial weathering.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 06:40:33 +0000
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