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Dating late Quaternary events by the combined U‐Pb LA‐ICP‐MS and (U‐Th)/He dating of zircon: A case study on Omachi Tephra suite (central Japan)
Author(s) -
Ito Hisatoshi,
Danišík Martin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
terra nova
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.353
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-3121
pISSN - 0954-4879
DOI - 10.1111/ter.12452
Subject(s) - zircon , tephra , geology , pleistocene , geochemistry , geochronology , quaternary , volcano , paleontology
Dating of young (<1 Ma) geological events has long been a challenge for geochronologists. Combining (U‐Th)/He with U‐Pb or U‐Th‐disequilibrium dating methods offers a unique dating tool that can address this important period. We present a new methodology that combines U‐Pb LA‐ICP‐MS and (U‐Th)/He dating of zircon and use it to date two Pleistocene marker tephras (A1Pm and DPm) from the Omachi Tephra suite (Japan). A1Pm and DPm yield U‐Pb ages in the range of 350–850 and ~140–630 ka, respectively, documenting protracted periods of zircon crystallisation (100's of k.y.) prior to eruption. (U‐Th)/He ages constrain the eruption ages of the A1Pm and DPm tephras to 375 ± 13 and 97.1 ± 7.3 ka, respectively, and are in agreement with published estimates. This study demonstrates the potential of combined zircon U‐Pb LA‐ICP‐MS and (U‐Th)/He dating to constrain magmatic and eruption events in the critical ~100 ka–1 Ma interval.