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Determination of K‐Ar ages in milligram samples using an infrared laser for argon extraction
Author(s) -
Solé Jesús
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.4280
Subject(s) - argon , chemistry , extraction (chemistry) , mass spectrometry , analytical chemistry (journal) , argon gas , laser , environmental chemistry , chromatography , optics , physics , organic chemistry
Abstract The K‐Ar dating method has been used for decades to decipher the ages of terrestrial and extraterrestrial minerals and rocks. The natural radioactive decay of a metal to a rare gas is an advantage that allows the determination of very small amounts of argon by mass spectrometry. Although the Ar‐Ar method has superseded K‐Ar, the latter is still used and it has room for improvement. One of these is the reduction of the analyzed sample mass, a desideratum of any current analytical technique. I report here our experience in K‐Ar geochronology of milligram‐sized samples using laser heating and melting for gas extraction. This modification of the classical K‐Ar technique has not been, to my knowledge, used in any other laboratory in the world and deserves a detailed description of its advantages and limitations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.