PRINCIPLE, EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS AND APPLICATION OF FISSION TRACK LA-ICP-MS/FT METHOD

Fission track, an important low-temperature thermochronology dating method, is widely used in rock mass cooling age tests and study of thermal history of tectonic evolution. It mainly includes the traditional external detector (EPMA) method and newly-developed LA-ICP-MS/FT method. Due to the limitations of traditional method, such as inadequate neutron thermalization in domestic reactors, long irradiation period and environmental security problems, data cannot be obtained effectively and quickly. On the contrary, the establishment and application of LA-ICP-MS/FT not only avoids the errors caused by inadequate neutron thermalization and uneven thermal neutron distribution, but also greatly improves the testing efficiency and shortens the time to solve scientific problems. Through the detailed introduction to fission track LA-ICP-MS/FT dating principle and method, experimental process, commonly-used age value and fission track annealing, the paper discusses the research progress of the method in related applications and compares with traditional external detector method, and finally summarizes the applications in analyses of cooling and uplift history of orogenic belts, sedimentary basins, basin-mountain coupling system, fault activities, metallogenic age and orebody preservation.