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Improved zircon fission-track annealing model based on reevaluation of annealing data

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Abstract

The thermal recovery (annealing) of mineral structure modified by the passage of fission fragments has long been studied by the etching technique. In minerals like apatite and zircon, the annealing kinetics are fairly well constrained from the hour to the million-year timescale and have been described by empirical and semi-empirical equations. On the other hand, laboratory experiments, in which ion beams interact with minerals and synthetic ceramics, have shown that there is a threshold temperature beyond which thermal recovery impedes ion-induced amorphization. In this work, it is assumed that this behavior can be extended to the annealing of fission tracks in minerals. It is proposed that there is a threshold temperature, T 0, beyond which fission tracks are erased within a time t 0, which is independent of the current state of lattice deformation. This implies that iso-annealing curves should converge to a fanning point in the Arrhenius pseudo-space (ln t vs. 1/T). Based on the proposed hypothesis, and laboratory and geological data, annealing equations are reevaluated. The geological timescale estimations of a model arising from this study are discussed through the calculation of partial annealing zone and closure temperature, and comparison with geological sample constraints found in literature. It is shown that the predictions given by this model are closer to field data on closure temperature and partial annealing zone than predictions given by previous models.

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Acknowledgments

S. G. has been financed by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico(process number 473888/2007-6). P. A. F. P. M. acknowledges Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa de São Paulo (process number 2007/08393-0) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (process number 200016/2008-3) for financial support. R. D. was supported by the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. W.J.W was supported by the UT-OR NL Governor’s Chair program. A portion of the research was performed using EMSL, a national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research and located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Authors are indebted to Dr Weixing Li and one anonymous reviewer, whose comments and criticisms helped to improve the quality of this paper. We also wish to thank the editor, Dr Masanori Matsui, for carefully handling this paper.

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  1. Instituto de Física “Gleb Wataghin”, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP, Campinas, CEP 13083-970, SP, Brazil

    S. Guedes, P. A. F. P. Moreira & J. C. Hadler

  2. Chemical and Materials Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, MS K2-01, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA, 99352, USA

    R. Devanathan

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    W. J. Weber

  4. Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA

    W. J. Weber

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  1. S. Guedes
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Correspondence to S. Guedes.

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Guedes, S., Moreira, P.A.F.P., Devanathan, R. et al. Improved zircon fission-track annealing model based on reevaluation of annealing data. Phys Chem Minerals 40, 93–106 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00269-012-0550-8

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