Abstract
It is shown that the annealing kinetics of fission tracks in apatite can be described by a sum of exponential decay functions. From an analysis of the temperature dependence of this annealing law it is concluded that the etchability of fission tracks is due to extended defects, i.e. systems of dislocation loops. The multiexponential annealing law is also applied to prove that the plateau correction method is basically correct, but rather as a method for determining a lower limit than the “true” fission track age.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bertagnolli E, Märk E, Bertel E, Pahl M, Märk TD (1981) Determination of palaeotemperatures of apatite with the fission-track method. Nucl Tracks 5:175–180
Bertel E (1978a) Über die Temperaturabhängigkeit der Strukturen von Uranspaltspuren in Apatiten und ihre Auswirkung auf die Ermittlung von Temperaturaltern. Thesis, Universität Innsbruck
Bertel E (1978b) Fission damage detection and investigation of the annealing behavior in apatite by absorption spectroscopy. Phys Rev B 17:4544–4548
Bertel E, Märk TD, Pahl M (1980a) The interpretation of fission track annealing behavior in apatite and other minerals. Proc 10th Int Conf Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors, Lyon, 1979. Nucl Tracks, Suppl 2: 957–959
Bertel E, Märk TD, Pahl M (1980b) Investigation of the annealing behavior of fission track damage in apatite by absorption spectroscopy. Proc 10th Int Conf Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors, Lyon, 1979. Nucl Tracks, Suppl 2: 159–163
Bertel E, Ritter W, Bertagnolli E, Märk TD (1982) Fission damage induced color centers in apatite. Phys Rev B 27 (in press)
Burchart J, Butkiewicz T, Dakowski M, Galazka-Friedman J (1979) Fission track retention in minerals as a function of heating time during isothermal experiments: A discussion. Nucl Tracks 3:109–117
Burchart J, Galazka-Friedman J, Kral J (1981) Experimental artefacts in fission track annealing curves. Nucl. Tracks 5:113–120
Chaillou D, Chambaudet A (1981a) Isothermal plateau method for apatite fission track dating. Nucl Tracks 5:181–186
Chaillou D, Chambaudet A, Zidler B (1981b) Sur la retention des traces de fission de l'uranium dans les minéraux. J Phys (Paris) 42:L343-L345
Cukier RI, Hynes JT (1976) On exponential time decay in relaxation. J Chem Phys 64:2674–2683
Dakowski M, Burchart J, Galazka J (1974) Experimental formula for the thermal fading of fission tracks in minerals and natural glasses. Bull Acad Pol Sci Ser Sci Terre 22:11–17
Dartyge E, Duraud JP, Langevin Y, Maurette M (1981) New model of nuclear particle tracks in dielectric minerals. Phys Rev B 23:5213–5229
Fleischer RL, Price PB, Walker RM (1975) Nuclear tracks in solids. Univ California Press, Berkeley
Fletcher RC, Brown WL (1953) Annealing of bombardment damage in a diamond-type lattice: Theoretical. Phys Rev 92:585–590
Galazka J, Burchart J (1977) Cumulative isothermal heating (CIH) as a method to correct thermally lowered fission track ages. I. Mathematical models. Bull Acad Pol Sci Ser Sci Terre 25:1–7
Galazka-Friedman J, Burchart J (1977) Cumulative isothermal heating (CIH) as a method to correct thermally lowered fission track ages. II. Intensity of the thermal episode and time of its occurrence. Bull Acad Pol Sci Ser Sci Terre 25:57–65
Gold R, Roberts JH, Ruddy FH (1981) Annealing phenomena in solid state track recorders. Nucl Tracks 5:253–264
Märk E, Märk TD (1982a) Fission track temperature age theory. Proc 11th Intern Conf Solid State Nuclear Detection, Bristol, 1981. Nucl Tracks, Suppl 3:389–394
Märk E, Märk TD (1982b) Comments on the paper entitled ‘Fission track retention in minerals as a function of heating time during isothermal experiments” by Burchart et al. Nucl Tracks 5:325–328
Märk E, Pahl M, Märk TD (1972) Fission track annealing behavior of apatite. Am Nucl Soc Trans 15:126–127
Märk E, Pahl M, Purtscheller F, Märk TD (1973) Thermische Ausheilung von Uranspaltspuren in Apatiten, Alterskorrekturen und Beiträge zur Geothermochonologie. Tschermaks Mineral Petrogr Mitt 20:131–154
Märk TD (1982) Ion induced track formation mechanism in apatite. Nucl Tracks, Suppl 3:381–384
Märk TD, Vartanian R, Pahl M (1980) Interpretation of fission track annealing in sphene and fission track age-temperature relationship. Am Nucl Soc Tran 34:144–145
Märk TD, Vartanian R, Purtscheller F, Pahl M (1981a) Fission track annealing and applications to the dating of Austrian sphene. Acta Phys Austriaca 53:45–59
Märk TD, Pahl M, Vartanian R (1981b) Fission track annealing and fission track-temperature relationship in sphene. Nucl Technol 52:295–305
Naeser CW (1979) Fission track dating and geological annealing of fission tracks. In: Jäger E, Hunziker JC (eds) Isotope geology. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 154–169
Naeser CW, Faul H (1969) Fission-track annealing in apatite and sphene. J Geophys Res 74:705–710
Naeser CW, Fleischer RC (1975) Age of the apatite at Cerro de Mercado, Mexico: a problem for fission track annealing corrections. Geophys Res Lett 2:67–70
Provencher SW (1976a) A Fourier method for the analysis of exponential decay curves. Biophys J 16:27–41
Provencher SW (1976b) An eigenfunction expansion method for the analysis of exponential decay curves. J Chem Phys 64:2772–2777
Ritter W, Märk TD, Bertagnolli E (1982a) Absorption spectroscopy of fission track induced radiation damage in apatite. Proc 11th International Conference on Solid States Nuclear Track Detectors, Bristol, 1981. Nucl Tracks, Suppl 3:353–356
Ritter W, Märk TD (1982b) Diffusion to the surface in the annealing of radiation damage in inorganic insulating solids. In: Proc 3rd Symp Atomic Surface Physics, Maria Alm, Lindinger W, et al., (eds) 3:134–140
Ritter W, Märk TD (1982c) Absorption spectroscopy of the annealing of absorbing defects in natural fluorapatite. Rad Effects, (in press)
Saini HS, Nagpaul KK (1979) Annealing characteristic of fission tracks in minerals and their applications to earth sciences. Int J Appl Radiat Isot 30:213–231
Seitz F, Koehler JS (1956) Displacement of atoms during irradiation. Solid State Phys 2:369
Storzer D, Poupeau G (1973) Ages-plateaux de minéraux et verres par la méthode des traces de fission. CR Acad Sci Paris 276D:137–138
Vartanian R (1975) Ausheilversuche, Alters- und Urangehaltsbestimmung an Apatit- und Titanitkristallen mit der Spaltspurenmethode. Thesis, Univ Innsbruck
Wagner GA (1979) Correction and interpretation of fission track ages In: Jäger E, Hunziker JC (eds) Isotope geology. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 170–177
Wagner GA, Reimer GM (1972) Fission track tectonics: the tectonic interpretation of fission track apatite ages. Earth Planet Sci Lett 14:263–268
Zimmerman RA, Gaines AM (1978) A new approach to the study of fission track fading. 4th Intern Conf Geochron Cosmochron Isotope Geology. US Geological Survey Yearbooks 78–701:467–468
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bertel, E., Märk, T.D. Fission tracks in minerals: Annealing kinetics, track structure and age correction. Phys Chem Minerals 9, 197–204 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00311955
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00311955