Accuracy of LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb age determination： An inter-laboratory comparison

LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb dating has been greatly advanced and widely applied in the past decade because it is a cheap and fast technique. The internal error of LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb dating can be better than 1%, but reproducibility （accuracy） is relatively poor. In order to quantitatively assess the accu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science China. Earth sciences 2015-10, Vol.58 (10), p.1722-1730
Main Authors: Li, XianHua, Liu, XiaoMing, Liu, YongSheng, Su, Li, Sun, WeiDong, Huang, HuiQing, Yi, Keewook
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crystallization
Data reduction
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Fractionation
LA-ICP-MS
LA-ICPMS
Laboratories
Mesozoic
Research Paper
Studies
U-Pb年龄测定
不确定性
实验室
测定精度
锆石U-Pb定年
锆石U-Pb年龄
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Summary:LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb dating has been greatly advanced and widely applied in the past decade because it is a cheap and fast technique. The internal error of LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb dating can be better than 1%, but reproducibility （accuracy） is relatively poor. In order to quantitatively assess the accuracy of this technique, zircons from two dioritic rocks, a Mesozoic dioritic microgranular enclave （FS06） and a Neoproterozoic diorite （WC09-32）, were dated independently in eight laboratories using SIMS and LA-ICPMS. Results of three SIMS analyses on FS06 and WC09-2 are indistinguishable within error and give a best estimate of the crystallization age of 132.2 and 760.5 Ma （reproducibility is -1%, 2RSD）, respectively. Zircon U-Pb ages determined by LA-ICPMS in six laboratories vary from 128.3±1.0 to 135.0±0.9 Ma （2SE） for FS06 and from 742.9±3.1 to 777.8±4.7 Ma （2SE） for WC09-32, suggesting a reproducibility of -4% （2RSD）. Uncertainty produced during LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb analyses comes from multiple sources, including uncertainty in the isotopic ratio measurements, uncertainty in the fractionation factor calculation using an external standard, uncertainty in the age determination as a result of common lead correction, age uncertainty of the external standards and uncertainty in the data reduction. Result of our study suggests that the uncertainty of LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb dating is approximately 4% （2RSD）. The uncertainty in age determination must be considered in order to interpret LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb data rationally.
ISSN:1674-7313
1869-1897
DOI:10.1007/s11430-015-5110-x