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https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1150
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1150
14 Jun 2024
 | 14 Jun 2024

Development of an integrated analytical platform of clay minerals separation, characterization and 40K/40Ar dating

Marie Gerardin, Gaetan Milesi, Julien Mercadier, Michel Cathelineau, and Danièle Bartier

Abstract. Isotopic dating is a valuable method to constrain the timing of lithospheric processes: geodynamic episodes, ore deposition and geothermal regimes. The K-Ar dating technique has the main advantage of being applied to ubiquitous K-bearing minerals that crystallize in various temperatures, from magmatic to low temperatures. Clays are of significant interest among all K-bearing minerals, as they crystallize during various hydro-thermo-dynamic processes. Nonetheless, the dating of illites by the K-Ar method is not straightforward. K-Ar dates on illite usually rely on a mixed isotopic signal referring to various illitic populations that might have experienced isotopic resetting or re-crystallization processes. Therefore, reliable K-Ar dates on illite depend on (1) the grain size separation of large amounts of clay fractions, (2) the study of the morphology, mineralogy and crystallography, (3) the determination of precise K-Ar dates on each clay size fraction and (4) the meaningful interpretation of ages using either end-member ages or the Illite-Age-Analysis (IAA) method. This paper describes the instrumentation and methods recently developed at the GeoRessources laboratory of the University of Lorraine to obtain valuable ages on illite mixtures.

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Journal article(s) based on this preprint

24 Oct 2024
Development of an integrated analytical platform for clay mineral separation, characterization and K–Ar dating
Marie Gerardin, Gaétan Milesi, Julien Mercadier, Michel Cathelineau, and Danièle Bartier
Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 13, 309–323, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-13-309-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-13-309-2024, 2024
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The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.

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Clay minerals are helpful markers of low-temperature geological processes. The combination of...
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