Extract:

Detrital zircons, since they are highly chemically and mechanically inert, reflect the processes of crustal evolution that their host metamorphic and sedimentary deposits have undergone. The U-Pb isotopic system can be used to date the time of the zircon’s crystallization and therefore the age of the body in which they are found.

Coupling a laser ablation system with a fast scanning, single collector ICP-MS demonstrates excellent performance for dating analysis of zircons. Sample turn around is very fast and through advanced, flexible hardware and software the laser ablation system can be treated as an autosampler allowing > 300 analyses per day – especially important for the analysis of detrital zircons where statistical limitations demand > 100 individual analyses for a single sediment sample.