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In-situ U-Pb dating of uraninite by fs-LA-ICP-MS

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Abstract

In this study, the Pb/U fractionation between zircon and uraninite during femtosecond Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (fs-LA-ICP-MS) analysis was studied in detail. The results show significant Pb/U fractionation between zircon and uraninite during fs-LA-ICP-MS analysis that when calibrated against the zircon standard M257, the obtained U-Pb age of the Chinese national uraninite standard GBW04420 is 17% older than the recommended value. Thus, the accurate in-situ U-Pb dating of uraninite by LA-ICP-MS requires matrix-matched external standards for calibration. Uraninite in thin sections of two U-mineralized leucogranite from the Gaudeanmus in Namibia was analyzed by a fs-LA-ICP-MS equipped with a Signal Smooth Device (SSD), using laser spot and frequency of 10 µm and 1 Hz, respectively. When calibrated using GBW04420 as the external standard, two samples give weighted mean 206Pb/238U ages of 504±3 Ma (2σ, n=21) and 503±3 Ma (2σ, n=22), and only one of two samples yields a concordia U-Pb age of 507±1 Ma (2σ, n=21). These results are consistent with ID-TIMS U-Pb ages of 509±1 and 508±12 Ma and are also indistinguishable from zircon U-Pb upper intercept ages of 506±33 Ma (2σ, n=29) and 501±51 Ma (2σ, n=29). The present study shows that in-situ U-Pb dating of uraninite can deliver more reliable formation ages of the deposit than dating coeval high-U zircon because the latter commonly suffer significant Pb loss after formation. Our results confirm that GBW04420 is an ideal matrix matching standard for in-situ U-Pb dating of uraninite.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    KeQing Zong, ZhaoChu Hu, YongSheng Liu & Ming Li

  2. Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, Beijing, 100029, China

    JinYong Chen, HongHai Fan & YanNing Meng

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  1. KeQing Zong
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Zong, K., Chen, J., Hu, Z. et al. In-situ U-Pb dating of uraninite by fs-LA-ICP-MS. Sci. China Earth Sci. 58, 1731–1740 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-015-5154-y

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