Combined apatite fission-track dating, chlorine and REE content analysis by LA-ICPMS

As one of the best established low temperature thermochronology techniques, apatite fission-track （AFT） analysis has proved an important tool for constraining a wide variety of upper crustal processes, e.g., landscape evolution, hydrocarbon exploration and tectonics [I ]. The most common method employed for AFT analysis is the external detector method （EDM） [1 ] and this involves the thermal neutron irradiation of samples for determination of 238U content. But this approach is often problematic due to poorly therrealized neutron fluxes, non-uniformly distributed neutrons, long turn-round times and the necessity for handling of radioactive material [1,2]. To overcome these limitations, recent experiments have been carried out to directly measure the apatite 2SSU content by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry （[.A-ICPMS） [3]