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Minerals, (40Ar-39Ar)

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods

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Definition

Dating potassium-bearing minerals using the 40Ar-39Ar technique is the most popular approach to determining the rates and timescales of geological processes across a wide range of geological time and is applied to dating igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks including meteorites and Moon rocks. Dating minerals using the Ar-Ar dating method is performed on purified mineral separates, individual mineral grains, and in situ in thick polished slabs.

Introduction

The earliest Ar-Ar dating studies were analyses of whole rock samples to investigate the age of meteorites and the first Moon rocks returned by the Apollo 11 astronauts (e.g., Turner et al. 1966, 1971). Terrestrial studies quickly applied the new dating techniques to mineral separates (e.g., Lanphere and Dalrymple 1971). Whole rock dates using the Ar-Ar technique are used predominantly for volcanic rocks where they can distinguish between instantaneous eruption ages and those disturbed by alteration of additional...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

    Simon Kelley & Clare Warren

  2. Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse (NGU), Leiv Eirikssons vei 39, Trondheim, 7040, Norway

    Camilla Wilkinson

Authors
  1. Simon Kelley
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  2. Clare Warren
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  3. Camilla Wilkinson
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Correspondence to Simon Kelley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    W. Jack Rink

  2. Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Jeroen Thompson

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Kelley, S., Warren, C., Wilkinson, C. (2014). Minerals, (40Ar-39Ar). In: Rink, W., Thompson, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_94-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_94-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6326-5

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